The 162nd Owen Sound Emancipation Festival is set to go this weekend.
Festival Board of Director member Juanita Christmas says the festival will begin Friday with a Speaker’s Corner at Grey Roots Museum and Archives.
She says the event will feature live music from Juno and Maple Blues Award nominee Brooke Blackburn, as well as a presentation from Dr. Cyrus Sundar Singh titled, The Journey of a Messenger from Africville to Emancipation to the Door of No Return.
“It’s all about sharing our memories and reflecting on the past and present. We are going to have some presentations of people sharing their own memories about what the Emancipation Festival means to them,” says Christmas.
The evening will end with a live music and dance event by Band of People, a Toronto-based social justice band which blends alternative rock, soul and electronic music vibrations.
Saturday (August 3), the main event of the Emancipation Festival takes place at Harrison Park from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. That will include the 20th anniversary Black History Cairn talk, as well as entertainment and food.
And on Sunday (August 4), there will be another event at Moreston Heritage Village at Grey Roots from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
This is the fourth festival since Bill M-36 was passed in the House of Commons to recognize August 1 annually as Emancipation Day across the country. It marks the actual day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect across the British Empire.
Owen Sound’s Emancipation Festival is believed to be the longest-running Emancipation event in North America. Our
“For us, as organizers of the festival, we welcome everyone to celebrate the strength and perseverance of black communities in Canada,” says Christmas.
