Fayetteville, N.C. – On behalf of the City of Fayetteville, Cool Spring Downtown District (CSDD) is pleased to announce the return of the third annual Juneteenth Jubilee: Their Wildest Dreams.

The Juneteenth Jubilee will kick off in the heart of downtown on Saturday June 15, 2024, with a full-day celebration in Festival Park (335 Ray Avenue) from 1:00PM – 9:00PM featuring nationally touring headliners, local performance acts, food trucks, small-business and corporate vendors, artists/artisans, history, games and other entertainment for the whole family.

In addition to all the fun in the park, the Can-Do Coldwell Trolley will return to offer festival-goers a chance to take an educational tour focused on the history of Juneteenth and black history here in Fayetteville, curated in partnership with local historians from Fayetteville State University.

The current list of confirmed Juneteenth Jubilee event sponsors includes: Title Sponsor – The City of Fayetteville, as well as Title Media Sponsor – ABC-11, Healy Wholesale Company, Inc., Beasley Media Group, and Cape Fear Valley Health System, with additional sponsorships pending. To learn more about becoming a Juneteenth Jubilee sponsor, please email Bianca Shoneman, CSDD President/CEO at bianca@coolspringfay.org.

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The opening headliner is two-time Grammy nominated artist, Pierce Freelon. Freelon’s joyful music blends hip-hop, electronic jazz and soul. His modern and dynamic sound is inspired by his journey as a millennial dad and is carefully crafted for today’s modern families. Through honest and playful lyrics, rich melodies and fresh beats, he shares his story and welcomes kids and adults to his world. Pierce’s critically acclaimed work has been featured on the TODAY Show, NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Parents Magazine and the PBS Kids animated series’ Alma’s Way and Work it Out Wombats! He founded Blackspace, a digital maker space offering teens free programming rooted in Afrofuturism. He is also the co-creator and talent of the PBS Kids podcast “Jamming on the Job ” and has written two children’s picture books with Little Brown. Pierce is currency GRAMMY nominated alongside his mother, jazz singer Nnenna Freelon, for their first family album together, AnceStars.

The marquee headliner this year is Skip Marley. The maternal grandson of Bob Marley, Skip Marley is part of the legendary reggae family that also includes his mother, Cedella, and uncles Ziggy, Stephen, and Damian Marley, yet his own sound adds touches of contemporary pop, rap, and rock forms. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Miami, Florida, Skip is a self-taught musician who first performed at the age of 15, when his uncle Stephen prompted him to sing the chorus of “One Love” on-stage. In 2016, Skip debuted on the family’s Island-distributed Tuff Gong label with the ballad “Cry to Me.” After he signed with Island Records proper, he debuted on the label with the dramatic, pop-oriented anthem “Lions.” A week later, Katy Perry released “Chained to the Rhythm,” a collaboration with Skip, and the two performed it at the 59th AnnualGrammy Awards. The single quickly became a Top Ten pop hit in several countries. Rather than rush into making an album, Skip spent the nextthree years developing his sound with dynamic tracks like “Calm Down” and “Refugee”, as well as 2019 collaborations with his uncle Damien (“That’s Not True”) and H.E.R. (“Slow Down”), the latter of which hit number one on Billboard’s Adult R&B Songs chart. In 2020, Skip enlisted Rick Ross and Ari Lennox for the track “Make Me Feel,” which, along with other contemporaneous singles, was included in his debut EP, Higher Place, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. That same year, Skip was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist.

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐒 – 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐉𝐔𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒!

On Sat, April 13 from 12PM – 3PM, take your chance to audition for the District Vibe @ Juneteenth stage. We have five performance slots to fill! No pre-registration required, simply join us at The Capitol Encore Academy (126 Hay Street) on April 13th with your track on a thumb drive (or your acoustic instrument) and a song in your heart.

All genres are welcome to audition. Questions? Contact us at info@coolspringfay.org.

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Registration is now open!!! This is a great race in downtown Fayetteville. It was so much fun last year!! This is a very friendly run or walk course. Finishers will get a wonderful medal!

If you are interested in partnering with us and the Fayetteville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. contact us for sponsorship opportunities.

During the Juneteenth Jubilee in Downtown Fayetteville on June 15, Black Artist Forward will host a Black Art Crawl from June 14 – July 28. Get to know local talented artists who will showcase their work. More information can be found on their website.

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The NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction in Fayetteville is pleased to announce this year’s speaker for the 6th Hari Jones Memorial Lecture, an annual event that commemorates Juneteenth.

Leesa Jones, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum in Washington, North Carolina and a well-known local historian in Eastern North Carolina, will speak, She is appearing in conjunction with the Juneteenth Speakers’ Bureau of the NC African American Heritage Commission.

The event will be Monday, June 17 at 7 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, 1217 Murchison Road, Fayetteville, directly across the street from Fayetteville State University.

And it’s going to go way beyond an audience listening to a lecture. Instead, it will be an audience participating with Leesa Jones and her husband Milt, both in period costumes, in a unique living history event.

“The program will consist of singing, dancing and exhibits to help illustrate freedom-seeking information,” says Jones. “We always engage the audience to join us in this fun and educational presentation. It is a wonderful way to learn and celebrate this amazing history and, offer the takeaway of how we can all work together to learn what the Underground Railroad movement taught us, which is, people working together can provide the dignity, respect, compassion and value of life for all people.”

Please check back soon for event schedule and updates.