Corporate sponsors have pulled back support for Denver’s Juneteenth Music Festival, forcing organizers to cut an entire day of programming and turn the weekend celebration into a one-day event.
The JMF Corporation, the nonprofit that runs the festival, has also launched an emergency fundraising campaign to raise an additional $80,000.
“We know that values shift and priorities change—but our community stays rooted,” wrote Norman Harris, the executive director of the JMF Corporation, in a statement. “We’re not scaling back our commitment, just the footprint. And with our community by our side, we’ll rise to meet this moment and keep Juneteenth alive in the streets of Five Points.”
The event will now take place on June 15 in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. The festival will continue to feature live music, a showcase of Black-owned businesses and spaces for the community to connect.
'History does not need a corporate structure to support it'
Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Juneteenth did not receive corporate sponsorship, said historic preservationist and Five Points activist Charles Foster.
If the organizers were more connected to the old-time businesses, they would have had enough support to keep the festival going at full capacity.
“When you know your history and when you really excel in your history and really care about your history, nothing like this stops you, because history is priceless,” Foster said. “History does not need a corporate structure to support it.”
Norman Harris has not responded to Denverite’s immediate requests for comment.
Celebrating Juneteenth has been a Denver tradition since 1966. The now-federal holiday is a celebration of the date enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed.
Other large festivals have been hit by losses
It's yet another blow to a large-scale summer festival in the city’s historic Black neighborhood.
In November, the city canceled the annual Five Points Jazz Festival and replaced it with a grant program for year-round events.
Meanwhile, the Pride Parade has also lost major corporate sponsorship as companies pulled back from funding programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion following President Donald Trump’s crackdown on DEI.
