Local music performers will strut their stuff, hoping to get a break.Business folks will shake hands and schmooze, looking for the next deal.
And family and friends will get together for reunions, jumpstarting their memories.
Music, business and friendship will stay all day Saturday in Zinn Park as the 13th annual Juneteenth Heritage Festival gets it going on.
"The community has embraced this as their own program. It has become a family reunion, a place to network and a business expo for businesses," says Ali Shabazz, vice president of Juneteenth Heritage Board of Anniston. "I’m feeling very upbeat and positive because the community has been positive on this."
Juneteenth gets its name for June 19, 1865, the day when slaves in Galveston, Texas, first learned they were free. That was more than two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Locally, Juneteenth became an official city day in 1991.
"This is the one day that we get to show the best in our community," Shabazz says. "This is about showing appreciation for the foundation our ancestors laid for us to be here."
The festivities Saturday are set to begin at 10 a.m. with live entertainment planned throughout the day. There will be a hip-hop stage on the 13th Street side of the park and a stage dedicated to other varieties of music and performance on the 14th Street side. Aspiring R&B, hip-hop, gospel, jazz and neo-soul artists will perform songs to promote their upcoming or recently released albums.
"We have had people who have come to us on a flight to stardom," says Ruby Evans said, president of Juneteenth Heritage Board of Anniston. "In our entertainment, we’ve had an increase in people calling us because they have just cut a demo and they want to see if they can sell it and get people to know them."
Featured artists include Airtight Band, Sylfronia King, IIN Twin, Untouched Entertainment, Lyrisis, Hydro, T.C.N., Logan, Carmeletha, Jahalla, Los Skillz and Caustic Dames.
Shabazz says he’s enthusiastic about hip-hop/jazz group Caustic Dames, an Atlanta-based group that recently returned from a European tour.
"They are independent ladies doing big things," he says. "They’ve got something to say and something to bring and folks will enjoy them."
The festival also will feature comic Joy, who calls herself the Queen of Clean of Birmingham, a nod to her squeaky clean act, as well as a step competition from local high-school aged groups and Talladega College’s Upward Bound choir and dance team.
Juneteenth Heritage Festival
When: Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m.Where: Zinn Park, West 14th Street and Gurnee Avenue.
How much: Free.
Contact: 237-2938, 820-5631 or www.juneteenthanniston.homestead.com.
