After celebrating Juneteenth virtually in 2021 due to COVID restrictions, Lift Every Voice Legacy (LEVL) is hosting — along with regional partners from South Snohomish and North King counties — its first in-person Juneteenth Kind of Father’s Day Picnic on Sunday, June 19 at Esperance Park.
The event marks the second year LEVL has organized its Juneteenth Festival of Freedom celebration, where everyone is welcomed to engage in a festival of music, storytelling, arts and crafts for children and free food for picnicking fun, according to Donnie Griffin, LEVL founder.
Juneteenth – also know as Emancipation Day and Freedom Day – marks the day when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 and informed the last enslaved outpost of African Americans slaves in the Confederate South that they were no longer under bondage.
Now an official holiday in Washington state, Juneteenth happens to fall on Father’s Day this year. The June 19 event will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Snohomish County-operated Esperance Park, 7830 222nd St. S.W., Edmonds. The LEVL community organizing committee and supporters include representatives from Lynnwood, Shoreline, Edmonds, Montlake Terrace, Marysville and Everett.
