The Owensboro Black Expo is taking its annual Juneteenth celebration to the river this year, as they’re moving the annual event to English Park on Saturday.
The celebration will kick off at 4 p.m. and includes several vendors and exhibitors. Live entertainment has been added to this year’s celebration with with performances from local artists No Limits and Londun Randolph along with Evansville band BG3.
The decision to move locations was made due to ongoing work and maintenance by the City along West 5th Street and at Kendall-Perkins Park.
OBE President Dominque Maddox said they workshopped moving to other locations, but after locking in English Park they saw a lot of potential with the venue.
“That’s probably one of the biggest things I am excited about, the change in the location for us to get to experience this on the river. So that’s a big change,” Maddox said.
Maddox said she’s proud that OBE has provided the event free of charge for the community for the last 6 years, and she’s especially excited this year that the support has grown to the point the celebrations is sponsored by Boardwalk Pipeline and Southern Star.
Maddox said when they started in 2018, there weren’t any Juneteenth celebrations in the tri-state area. She said she’s happy to not only be able to put on an event in Owensboro, but to help the surrounding area develop their own Juneteenth events.
And with the rise in events, there are also chances to educate on the history of Juneteenth, an opportunity Maddox is glad to take part in.
“Unfortunately, you can still mention Juneteenth and people do not even have a clue what you’re talking about,” she said. “But now you can Google it and find out, or come to our event, and you will learn there.”
