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Indy Juneteenth organizers announced they are cancelling this year’s parade after failing to secure a location for the event with the City of Indianapolis.
However, James Webb, co-founder and executive director of Indy Juneteenth, emphasized the organization will still be celebrating Juneteenth this year with a festival at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on June 21.
The organization also announced April 25 that it has plans to host next year’s Juneteenth parade at the fairgrounds, thanks in large part to the newfound relationship between the two organizations.
“Even though we won’t have the parade this year, I’m still excited for the future,” Webb said.
But he’s also disappointed that this year’s parade didn’t pan out.
“I just love being able to see the children celebrate the unity and seeing all the cultures around Indiana celebrating their God given right of freedom.”
Why did the Indy Juneteenth parade get canceled?
Canceling this year’s parade came after months of failed negotiations with the city to find a location and Webb said he felt like he had no other option.
“We normally have this stuff done by November or December, but to try to put something together in a month and a half that we would normally take six months to do, just wasn’t realistic,” he said.
The organization said it had reached out to the city in August 2024, filing a request for a special event permit and its potential parade route, which would have run along Indiana Avenue similar to last year’s parade.
According to Webb, the city got back to organizers in October 2024 and said they would be processing their application, but didn’t hear back from them until the organization offered a new route proposal at the start of 2025.
In hopes of speeding up the permit process with the city, organizers partnered with the Mass Ave organization to present a new parade route down Massachusetts Avenue.
But after meeting with the city’s special event coordinator and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, parade organizers learned the proposed dates weren’t available.
“Unfortunately, the locations and the timing they requested coincided with special event permits that had already been issued,” Dawn Olsen, communications officer for the Indianapolis Department of Business and Neighborhood Services, said in an email.
After learning the organization would not be able to host the parade on Massachusetts Avenue, they asked the city in February if Indiana Avenue was an option, like they did in their original request.
That’s when the city informed Indy Juneteenth it had scheduled another event for the same dates.
The city said they could still host the event along Indiana Avenue, but “the proposed route would have required additional organizations to sign off on it.”
Indy Juneteenth leadership tried to make it work, but by April, they realized they wouldn’t have enough time to fully organize the event.
At the end of April, Indy Juneteenth leadership informed the city that it would not be hosting its parade, opting instead to host a festival at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
“We completely understand the heartbreak that comes with making that decision, as thousands of people attended Juneteenth last year. There were just a lot of outside and existing factors that affected the viability of this year’s parade,” Olsen said in an email.
Juneteenth at the Indiana State Fairgrounds
On June 21, the Indy Juneteenth Celebration will be from noon to 7 p.m. at the fairgrounds.
“The beauty of this situation is that through all of this, we created a great relationship with the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and we’re already in talks with getting everything squared away to have a parade and festival in 2026,” Webb said.
Organizers will be inviting all of the performers scheduled to participate in this year’s parade to perform live at the event.
Organizers will also be hosting a wellness circle, sip and paint event, over 30 food vendors and over a hundred small business vendors.
“You’ll get the chance to see live performances and we will be giving out awards. It’ll still be a fun family event,” Webb said.
On top of that, Indy Juneteenth will be hosting several other events throughout June.
On June 7, 2025, Indy Juneteenth will host its Miss Indy Juneteenth pageant at 6 p.m. at The Basile Theatre at the Historic Athenaeum located at 401 East Michigan St.
On June 12, 2025, Indy Juneteenth will host its College & Career Conference from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 40 East St. Clair St. in Indianapolis. The event is meant for students to engage with different businesses, universities, entrepreneurs, investors and host workshops to teach them job and life skills.
On June 14, 2025, Indy Juneteenth will host its 3rd Annual Indy Juneteenth Boxing Showcase from 3-7 p.m. at the Speedway Events Center, 2608 Founders Square Drive. There will be 20 USA Boxing-sanctioned matches featuring fighters of all ages and weight classes.
On June 19, 2025, Indy Juneteenth will host its fireworks show from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Sarkine Park in Avon, 6575 East County Road 200 N. The event is open to the public.
Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at npadilla@indystar.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Email IndyStar Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09
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