Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival 158th event will go digital on August 1st at 11:00 am.

Register via the link below to attend the OSEF Opening Ceremonies celebrating the 158th Emancipation Festival.

Owen Sound Emancipation Festival Digital 2020 YouTube Premiere - this link will take you to the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival channel. Organizers remind participants to click on subscibe which will appear on the right-hand side, to ensure that you will receive a reminder the day before to tune in on Emancipation Day, August 1st. This will also serve as your Registration for the 11:00 am release on Emancipation Day.

Bruce Kruger, the Official Crier of the Emancipation will lead off with an opening address followed by greetings from Mayor Ian Boddy, Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard and a host of speakers and performers who have graced the Festival over the years.

The Owen Sound Emancipation Celebration Picnic commemorates the British Commonwealth Emancipation Act of August 1, 1834. Owen Sound and area residents have been celebrating this occasion since 1862 and have incorporated celebrating the United States Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.

While visiting the festival on Youtube, be sure to watch the video Selma Pictorial Exhibit - July 31st, 2015 by Canadian photographer, Lynn Ball.

This historic exhibit appeared at the Emancipation Festival in 2015 as part of the Art Show at Grey Roots Museum & Archives, which was 50 years after the event occurred in 1965 in Selma, Alabama. Remembering John Lewis.

source: media release, Owen Sound Emancipation Festival