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Donaldsonville Juneteenth Music Fest
Donaldsonville is set to celebrate its 31st Annual Juneteenth Festival. It will be held on Saturday, June 13, 2026 from 11am – 8pm.
Come out, bring your family, chairs, umbrella and listen to the sounds of South Louisiana musicians, learn the Juneteenth history, enjoy delicious cuisine of our local vendors, and shop. RAIN or SHINE!
The City of Donaldsonville and the festival committee have carried on the Juneteenth Festival tradition locally since its inception in 1995. Started by former Donaldsonville Mayor the late B.J. Francis Sr. and his late wife, Janet Ganes Francis, it was continued through the efforts of the River Road African American Museum and other volunteers in the community.
In 2011, Tamiko Francis Garrison (daughter of the late Bernard and Janet Francis), Allison Hudson, and the City of Donaldsonville assumed the planning of the festival. In 2023, the city announced the appointment of additional committee members: Tamiko Stroud (granddaughter of the late Bernard and Janet Francis), and Wayne Hamilton, BASF.
Juneteenth commemorates the day when slaves in the last geographic area in America where slavery existed learned of their freedom. This took place on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, when Union General Gordon Granger read General Order #3, announcing that “all slaves are free”by Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, and issued on January 1, 1863. It took over two and a half years for the news to travel to southwest Texas.
“Juneteenth is a landmark in history, a celebration of freedom and the end of enslavement in America,” states Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Founder & Chairman of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF) and the National Juneteenth Jazz Artist.
