Inaugural Juneteenth festival set in San Marcos
A local couple turned a backyard idea into a citywide celebration featuring music, food, history and unity
SAN MARCOS — Momentum is building for the first-ever Juneteenth in the city.
San Marcos couple Lionel Saulsberry and Natalie Gali-Saulsberry have wanted a large-scale event and celebration for several years, and finally took the lead and made it happen. Their first-ever event is slated for June 19, the official day of Juneteenth, from 3-8 p.m. at California State University of San Marcos.
The two have a jam-packed slate of cuisine, live music, entertainment, activities, speakers, educational components and more. Admission is free, although there is a paid VIP Emancipation Lounge with proceeds benefiting two non-profits — Oceanside-based Achievement in Motion (AIM) and The Bad Boyz of Culinary.
Tickets for the event and VIP lounge are open through the day of the festival.
“It’s been a wild three or four months,” Natalie Gali-Saulsberry said of organizing the event. “We’ve never done anything like this. It’s been a real challenge, but a pretty successful challenge so far.”
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery on June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Slave owners in Texas had not recognized the Emancipation Proclamation, so Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order No. 3 to officially inform slaves they were free.
The idea for the San Marcos event, though, came from a Juneteenth event the Saulsberrys hosted at their home in 2022. Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2021, and the couple saw that many people didn’t know the history and meaning behind the day.
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