LONG BEACH, CA — For the past five years, Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, had been celebrated the third weekend in June with a blowout celebration at Long Beach’s Rainbow Lagoon.
But the annual Juneteenth event in Long Beach won’t be held this year, and its long-term future is in doubt, the organizer has told the Press-Telegram, due to the lack of a suitable location to hold the event.
Organizer Carl Kemp told the newspaper in a story published Monday that the waterfront celebration, which has attracted tens of thousands of mostly African Americans for the past five years, was cancelled for 2026 due to scheduling conflicts with the city — and likely won’t be held in Long Beach for the foreseeable future.
He announced the event’s cancellation in a video posted to social media Monday morning.
In response, the City of Long Beach told the newspaper that it offered Kemp a different location and also a different weekend than the June 19 one in which Juneteenth events around the country are typically held.
Instead, the city said, Kemp chose to cancel the event altogether.
Kemp told the paper that there will be other various Juneteenth celebrations across Southern California that people will be able to attend.
