23rd Annual Blues & Sweet Potato Pie Festival: A Juneteenth Celebration

23rd Annual Blues and Sweet Potato Pie Festival at Northwest Library

Celebrate Juneteenth and kick off the Library’s Summer Learning Program with the 23rd Annual Blues and Sweet Potato Pie Festival at Northwest Library, held 11AM to 5PM on Saturday, June 15, 2024, at Apollo Park, which is adjacent to the Northwest Branch Library, located at 1580 NW 3 Ave., Pompano Beach, FL 33060.

This day of free family fun, live entertainment, art and history includes performances, activities, exhibits and the legendary pie-tasting contest to crown the community's best sweet potato pie maker. From children's fun to great music and food, the Blues and Sweet Potato Pie Festival offers a good time for all ages. Festival highlights include: Live Bands including the Cross Family Singers, Blues & Soul Singer: Dottie Kelly, & Julius Sanna & The Positively Africa Experience, Delt the DJ, Ashanti Cultural Arts Performers, dancing, Youth Arts & Crafts, Tribal Face Painting, Delicious food vendors, and more!

There will be historic fun with Rhonda B. Walker’s Old Fashioned Games: hoola hoop contest, tug-of-war, watermelon eating contest, sack races, foot races, and more, to honor the memory of Rhonda B. Walker, founder of the Blues and Sweet Potato Pie Festival in 1999 and Northwest Branch Library “Manager of Excellence” for many years.

Children, teens and adults can also register for the 2023 Library Summer Learning Program and find out about an action-packed summer of free fun. There will be a sign-up table for library cards and the Broward Supervisor of Elections will have a voter registration table on site and the customers are encouraged to bring ID.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom or Emancipation Day, commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. A history of the Juneteenth holiday will be part of the program. This year we will have a Special History of Juneteenth Lecture by Dr. Clovis LeMar.

Vendor space is also available or to be a contestant in our "Annual Sweet Potato Pie Bake-Off" Please call the Northwest Branch Library at 954-357-6599 or e-mail us at [email protected].

Host or Publisher The Friends of the NW Branch Library, a Non-Profit organization