Juneteenth celebrates end of slavery in America

By Kyle B. Hansen

Saturday, June 19, 2010 | 7:42 p.m.

For some of the people at the Las Vegas Juneteenth Festival, it was all about the music, food and good weather. For others, it was about history, culture and community.

“What we are doing here is embracing our culture and how great it is to be an American,” said Diane Pollard, president of the Rainbow Dreams Educational Foundation, which put on the event.

Juneteenth is a celebration of the end of slavery in America, and specifically the emancipation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.

Saturday’s event at the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater was the 10th annual festival in Las Vegas.

“Our purpose is to inform the Las Vegas community...about how rich our culture is,” Pollard said. “Our culture is woven in with the American culture, but unfortunately sometimes it’s left out of the history books.”

Many of the attendees at the event expressed similar sentiments and said they were happy to gather as a community to celebrate.

“It’s nice to celebrate our history, but most people don’t know about Juneteenth,” said Kolete Holmes of Las Vegas.

“I’ve been trying to teach my kids about it,” said North Las Vegas resident Dionne Counts said. “I don’t think they teach the history enough in school.”

The main part of the festival included bands and vendors selling food.

“We do have great music and coupled with that is some great food,” Pollard said.

But Counts said she was most excited about the chance to mingle in a safe environment with her family and friends.

“I think Las Vegas needs more stuff like this,” she said. “There’s not a whole lot to do in Vegas except drinking and gambling. We need more things to do outside of that. You can bring the kids to this.”

In addition to the food vendors, community groups were distributing information about their programs. And earlier in the day, the festival held workshops on education, finances and health, Pollard said.

This was the first year the festival was held at the amphitheater and the first year there was a charge for admission, Pollard said.

The funds will go to running the Rainbow Dreams Academy, a charter school on Lake Mead Boulevard that serves at-risk children.

“With all the declining dollars going to education, it goes to help us fund arts and other programs at the school,” Pollard said. “We just hope to build this and make it better and better.”