The South Carolina Juneteenth Freedom Fest

The South Carolina Juneteenth Freedom Fest Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The South Carolina Juneteenth Freedom Fest, Nonprofit Organization, Columbia, SC.

The SCJFF is driven by our MISSION to honor our ancestors, commemorate their emancipation, and empower their descendants through initiatives that foster economic growth,community redevelopment, societal advancement, improved health and educational efforts

08/25/2026

A movement is strongest when the people become the power.

Ella Baker understood something we still need to practice:

“Strong people don’t need strong leaders.”

That does not mean leadership does not matter.

It means the highest form of leadership is not creating followers. It is building people who know their history, understand their power, develop their capacity, and can move forward whether a leader is in the room or not.

That is what freedom requires.

We honor the people who came before us, not simply by remembering what they survived, but by building what they were denied.

More ownership.
More knowledge.
More healthy families.
More opportunity.
More institutions.
More control over our future.

Our question cannot only be, “Who is going to save us?”

It has to become:

What can we build together that makes us stronger tomorrow than we are today?

That is bigger than a festival.
That is bigger than one organization.
That is a movement.

The Future We Owe Ourselves is ours to build.

If you believe freedom should produce stronger people, stronger families, and stronger institutions, share this and bring somebody into the movement.

08/17/2026

What if the best idea for our community isn’t ours?

That’s the point.

Too often, organizations decide what people need, build the program, announce it, and then wonder why the room isn’t full.

We want to do this differently.

We have ideas. We have data. We know some of the challenges facing our community. But you know what you need, what your family needs, and what you would actually show up for.

So before we build the next workshop, we’re asking.

Careers and skilled trades?
Strong families?
Civic power?
Something we haven't even named yet?

This is bigger than filling seats. We’re building year round programming around real people, real needs and real participation.

So tell us:

If SCJFF could bring ONE free workshop, conversation or resource to the community, what should it be?

👇🏾 Put it in the comments. Even if you don't see your answer on these slides.

We’re not asking you to attend what we build.
We’re asking you to help us build it.

08/17/2026

YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS KARATE, DIDN’T YOU? 👀

A lot of people see movements like this and immediately think African performers are mimicking Asian martial arts.

But there is another history worth knowing.

Africa has its own traditions of combat, movement, weaponry, wrestling and warrior training, traditions sometimes discussed today under the broader umbrella of African martial arts or African martial sciences.

And this wasn’t just somebody doing flips for the crowd.

At the South Carolina Juneteenth Freedom Fest, a world renowned instructor brought that tradition to our festival and gave our community a live demonstration of African martial science.

That matters.

Because sometimes we encounter pieces of African culture without realizing what we are actually looking at.

The movement has history.
The technique has history.
The discipline has history.
We have history.

Juneteenth shouldn't only be a celebration of where we've been. It should also be a place where we discover pieces of ourselves that many of us were never taught.

So here’s the question:

Before seeing this post, had you ever heard of African martial arts or African martial sciences?

👇🏾 YES or NO?

And if the answer is no, that’s exactly why cultural spaces like this matter.

Outside We Was. Culture We Were.

08/13/2026

Everybody sees the festival. But there’s an entire economy behind what you see.

The photographer capturing the moment. The DJ moving the crowd. The videographer telling the story. The bands on stage. The content creators and podcasters. The local production company providing the stage, sound, lighting, video wall and backline for national recording artists.

Those aren't just people helping with an event.

Those are businesses. Those are contracts. Those are jobs. Those are checks going into households.

Even throughout Juneteenth Week, some of the spaces that welcomed our workshops were Black owned businesses.

Nearly a million dollars spent over a decade. Think about what it means when much of the work required to create a free experience of this size is intentionally sourced from the community the event serves.

Almost every direction you look, somebody who looks like us helped build it.

Not because we don't value diversity. We absolutely do.

But there is something beautiful about Black culture creating an opportunity for Black creatives, Black businesses and Black workers to participate economically in the very experience their talent helps make possible.

And then I think about what's left.

The land.

Prayerfully, if it is God's will, maybe one day we'll gather on something we own, too.

Because perhaps that's another way to think about freedom.

Not just celebrating together.

Creating together. Hiring together. Spending together. Growing together. And eventually, owning together.

That's an ecosystem.

And that's a story worth building on.

08/12/2026

A TIME WAS HAD. 🔥

And if you know Southern Soul, you know exactly what that means.

Mr. KG brought that grown folks, backyard, fish fry, family reunion, somebody-grab-your-partner energy to the Juneteenth Freedom Fest stage.

Southern Soul carries the blues, gospel and R&B, but down South, we made it our own. It’s music about living. Loving. Losing. Working. Laughing. Surviving. And still finding a reason to dance.

You didn’t just hear this set.

You felt it.

And judging by the crowd...

A TIME. WAS. HAD. 😂🔥

08/12/2026

Culture isn’t something we put on for Juneteenth.

It’s how we show up.

It’s the two step when your song comes on.
The auntie laughing from her soul.
The boots. The locs. The braids. The colors.
The young ones recording it.
The elders who remember where it came from.
The music that can make three generations move at the same time.

That’s culture.

Not frozen in a museum.
Not something that only lives in history books.

Alive. Loud. Passed down. Still becoming.

That’s what these pictures capture.

We weren’t outside just to have a good time.

We were outside being us.

08/10/2026

What happens when thousands of people show up and Black businesses are in position to serve them?

Money moves.

A vendor makes a sale.
A customer discovers a new business.
A family finds a new favorite brand.
A business leaves with new customers who may buy again long after Juneteenth.

Multiply that across dozens of vendors and thousands of attendees, and now we're talking about more than a festival.

We're talking about economic opportunity.

And those dollars don't stop at the vendor tent. Visitors eat, buy gas, shop, park and spend throughout the city.

That's the part of the Juneteenth story we should talk about more.

Celebrating freedom is important. Building the economics of freedom is the work.

08/09/2026

Healing cannot always be an individual assignment.

Sometimes what hurts us happened collectively.

Generations carried things they were never given the space to name. Families learned how to survive without always learning how to heal. Men were taught to hold it in. Women were expected to carry everybody. Children inherited wounds they didn't create.

And still, we built.

We loved.
We raised families.
We created culture.
We laughed.
We worshipped.
We survived.

But survival cannot be the final destination.

Healing also looks like community.

It looks like brothers having honest conversations with brothers. Women creating safe spaces for one another. Parents listening to their children. Elders sharing wisdom without shame. Young people discovering that asking for help is not weakness. Families learning new ways to communicate, forgive, protect and love.

Because sometimes the same community that learned how to survive together must learn how to heal together.

That is part of what freedom means to us.

Not simply remembering what our ancestors survived.

Building healthier people from what they left us.

Address

Columbia, SC
29205

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm

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