Celebrate Juneteenth with Heat star Udonis Haslem at this Miami food and music event
The founder of Miami’s annual Juneteenth Music & Food Festival is ready to celebrate with extra gusto this June 19.
That’s because the U.S. Senate voted this week to make Juneteenth, the day celebrating the end of slavery in America, a national holiday. The bill heads to the House of Representative next. In Miami-Dade, county commissioners already voted to make the annual celebration a paid holiday.
“I know I’m going to dance a little harder this year,” said Starex Smith, event organizer and blogger The Hungry Black Man, who has been commemorating the day with an annual music and dining event.
The Juneteenth Music & Food Festival will be a free three-day event this year, from June 18-20, with organized activities in Aventura, Miami Beach and Overtown.
It ends with the only ticketed event, a $50 sit-down dinner featuring a meal hosted by Miami-born Miami Heat start Udonis Haslem to honor “unsung heroic fathers from all over South Florida,” the festival wrote. Tickets are available online.
“UD is one of the most philanthropic people I’ve ever met,” Smith said.
The festival begins June 18 with an Overtown concert led by “The Four” contestant Ronnie Smith Jr. and other artists from Miami’s underground R&B music scene, Smith said. Food from Orlando chef Jenn Ross, who is planning to open a vegan restaurant in Miami in the fall, will be available for purchase.
The North Beach Bandshell is the venue for Saturday’s main event, from noon until 7 p.m., which Miami Beach board of commissioners voted to sponsor. Music will set the background for a walk-around tasting of food from the Black diaspora, from Mississippi blue crab to Afro-Caribbean cuisine.
Haslem’s Aventura restaurant, 800 Degrees Woodfired Kitchen, a franchise location he co-owns with Heat hall of famer Dwyane Wade, hosts Sunday’s event. Its head chef will create two menus, including a $50 vegan one. Twelve father figures will also be honored at the event, Smith said.
“It’s a celebration of Black dads,” Smith said. “You have a lot of non-traditional families and non-biological father figures who do an incredible job.”
Juneteenth Music & Food Festival
Dates: June 18-20
Tickets: Available at Eventbrite.com. Search for Juneteenth Music & Food Festival.
