The 2026 Hamblen Juneteenth Celebration is scheduled from 4 to 10 p.m. this Friday at Morristown Landing and organizers say it’s jam packed with great talent, food and more, all ready to celebrate the national holiday.

Keisha Griffin Monroe, owner/operator of event planning company Lavishly Local, said she’s excited about all of the featured acts ready to perform inside the Morristown recreation, fitness and event center.

“We are doing a theme called Homegrown this year, so all the performers that you see and all of the vendors are from Tennessee, either born and raised here and moved away and came back, or still here in the area somewhere,” Monroe said. “We have vendors all the way from Footeville that will be here this year. We have about 10 different food trucks and over 30 different vendors.”

New and returning performers will provide meaningful, entertaining presentations, she said, and returning emcee Sterl the Pearl will keep the day rolling.

“Sterl the Pearl will be our emcee, which is always exciting,” Monroe said. “It’s become a tradition. We can’t do it without Sterl, so he has to come through.”

She gave details about some of the groups.

“I’m excited about Tribe of Judah,” Monroe said. “It is a youth group from Martha Davis Baptist Church. There’s an older and a younger age group that will be performing, and a first-grader who will be doing a spiritual dance. We have a lot of youth performances.

“Guns Up Drums Down will be back this year from Knoxville. We’re excited about them.

“We have Knowledge Prophet with his group Borgata Business.

“We’re finishing up the night with an R&B vocalist from Keebee Entertainment, RaySean Tyler Manning.”

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and ensure that the last enslaved African Americans in the United States were finally freed.

Monroe said that this celebration of freedom is for everybody and the day is about unity.

“For me, the event is about unity and everybody coming together to celebrate the meaning of Juneteenth,” she “To me, the most important part is for us to come together. Wherever you are, in unity, reach out to somebody who’s not like you and try to understand a little bit about them and let them understand a little bit about you.”

This year Monroe said the event has a nonprofit host AAHGS-East TN Chapter.

The Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society of East Tennessee strives to promote the study and preservation of African-American history and genealogical study in East Tennessee. They work to preserve African-ancestral family history and genealogy by sharing and disseminating research techniques and information throughout the community.

The organization helped with fundraising for the event and sponsorship administration.

Monroe said the plan, as of right now, is to raise awareness of and with different groups as the event partners with a new one every year.