The fourth annual Southern Colorado Juneteenth Festival was hustling and bustling as crowds flocked to the various venues at America the Beautiful Park. 

Tents and food trucks encircled the park. Laughter could be heard from the children playing in the bouncy houses and in the Julie Penrose Fountain. Music played on a big stage by the park entrance. Chatter and smiles were everywhere.  

Jennifer Smith, a member of OneBodyEnt, the festival organizers, said the free-price-tagged festival, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S., is about making sure everyone feels free and has a good time, which is everything to her. 

Her dedication to that sentiment was clear as she bounced from the organizer’s tent to the parking lot and back to the tent to deal with various tasks, all while being interviewed.

Food is critical at the festival not just for the practical reason of making sure people are fed, but it also is part of the celebration and sharing of cultures. 

“Food and music. When you talk about doing a festival, without the food and music, it doesn’t make any sense,” Smith said.

Previous years saw seven to 10 food trucks at the festival, and the number has expanded to 18 this year.    

The expansion has come with a more diverse selection of food, including Mexican, Jamaican, Filipino, barbecue and more. 

To Smith, diversity not only keeps the festival interesting but is also important.

“If we just got barbecue, we’re not catering to the community. You’re saying everybody’s free, everybody’s welcome, but you ain’t got everybody’s food? We can’t have that,” she said. 

Christian, a 28-year-old Black man who moved to Colorado Springs a year ago, was attending the festival and said the food was one of the best parts of it, as he held a carved-out pineapple drink in one hand and in the other, a box of jerk chicken from a local Jamaican restaurant that was catering there in a food truck called One Love Island Grill.  

“The food, from a culture perspective, we kind of grew up on this, so it’s pretty nice,” he said.  

From the food business side, the festival gives locally owned businesses the opportunity to share their culture and grow their business.

Crissie Elep is the owner of Crissie’s Homemade, a food truck business that started off in a tent serving Filipino cuisine. This was the first time her business catered at the festival, but she plans to come back. 

Serving to the community is her favorite part of the festival. “It’s so much fun. Talking to customers and just having conversations with them. You know, we’re exchanging ideas and experiences, and, like, it’s just everything,” she said.  

Part of this exchange of ideas is tied into the food that she serves since people are introduced to Filipino food at the festival.

The food isn’t the only element that people at the festival enjoy.

J. Johnson, a 68-year-old Black man who has lived in Colorado for 30 years, has been attending the festival since it started.  

“The people are my favorite part of the festival. It’s the vibe, do you feel it?” he said as he looked around. “It’s like coming together. Not only Black folks are allowed here, everybody is allowed here. And we’re celebrating some of the Black experience.” 

To Johnson, the festival is a great way to reflect on the past and see how far he and his ancestors have come. “We’ve come this far. We couldn’t do this in 1865,” he said.  

The festival normally gets around 30,000 people throughout the three-day celebration, making it among the 10 largest Juneteenth celebrations in the country, according to Smith. 

“We’re gonna keep doing this. We won’t stop. The main thing is about getting the word out and letting people know what’s going on, so that we can continue to be successful,” Smith said.