Last year, it seemed that Denver’s annual Juneteenth Music Festival might not happen. Early in 2025, the festival announced it needed community support to ensure its existence; several corporate sponsors had dropped out, and the event had already scaled back from two days to one.
So there was a major communal sigh of relief when The Drop 104.7 swept in as a co-presenter, bringing headliner Juvenile along with it. “I can sincerely say that it would not have happened without the support of The Drop 104.7,” says Norman Harris III, who heads the nonprofit that runs the festival, JMF Corporation.
The radio station — one of the region’s best — signed on again this year, and the festival will be bigger than ever. Three days of music and entertainment along Welton Street kick off on Fri., June 19, with a Southern Soul Plaza Party at the Five Points Plaza (this is the only ticketed event of the weekend). It will be followed on Sat., June 20, by the annual parade that leaves Manual High School at 11 a.m. and heads to The Point, at Welton and 26th streets, for a day and night of performances, vendors, food trucks and more along Welton, with two-time Grammy nominee Sir headlining. And the music keeps going through Sun., June 20, with the Juneteenth Hop, a venue crawl around Five Points, which earned a reputation as the “Harlem of the West” for its support of Black musicians a century ago.
“Five Points has been the home of the Denver Juneteenth celebration for generations, even though this is the 15th year of being a festival,” says Harris. “It was one of those things where, just right around early June, you knew it was about time, and there would be this general level of excitement of people gathering in Five Points for the celebration.”…