BUFFALO, N.Y. —  On Saturday, hundreds of people danced, marched, played, and rolled down Genesee Street for the Juneteenth parade, while hundreds more lined the streets to watch and join the celebration. The parade ended at Martin Luther King Jr. Park where the first day of the festival began. After going virtual for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person return of Buffalo’s Juneteenth celebration, the third-largest in the nation each year, was bigger and better than ever. 

“It’s been two years in the making,” Stop The Violence Coalition board member Juetaun Drewitt said. “And I just hope everybody understands that Juneteenth is for us to share information of our ancestors and understand that we are free and carrying that freedom with you for generations to come because that’s why we’re here today, to celebrate and to heal.”

At the festival, which took place on Saturday and Sunday, vendors provided items and tastes that brought the best of Black American and traditional African cultures together, a much-needed celebration of a community recently attacked by an act of racist hate.

“It’s definitely a good sight to see,” said Wayne Woodard, who returned to Buffalo to bring his son to his first Juneteenth celebration. “I love all the people that’s coming out to support it. We definitely need it now more than ever, especially after the situation that happened, so this is a wonderful turnout.”

“It’s just so hurtful what happened here in Buffalo, so it’s time to celebrate love here,” said Sonya Agee, a vendor and owner of Miss Sonya’s Traveling Boutique.

The celebration, a reminder of what the holiday is truly about, the emancipation of the last of the enslaved African Americans who were never told of their freedom. The holiday bridges the gap between past and future for Black America.

“We celebrate Black culture because that’s who we are,” said Marlowe Wright who has been attending Buffalo Juneteenth since the first festival. “It’s nice that we don’t get sent away from that and stop embracing our own culture because once we stop embracing our culture, what do we have left? Who are we? Where do we go? Where do we come from? So, we need to be who we are, and that’s from African roots.”

The celebration was an opportunity for communities to come together. Locals and visitors attended, including state leaders like Gov. Kathy Hochul, who announced $50 million in state resources devoted to East Buffalo after the parade, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado and State Attorney General Letitia James.