Sunday, June 14, 2026

Altadena’s Juneteenth Stretches Across Two Days of Music, Resilience and Community

My Tribe Rise hosts a Friday night Backyard Boogie and a Saturday festival as the community marks freedom and recovery.

For Altadena, Juneteenth this year is both a celebration and a statement of endurance. The community will mark the holiday with two events organized by My Tribe Rise, the Black-led Altadena mutual-aid group that has been a steady presence in the neighborhood’s recovery since the January 2025 Eaton Fire. More than 20 organizations have come together to present the celebrations.

The weekend opens Friday, June 19 with a Backyard Boogie night party from 5 to 10 p.m., featuring the band Jammetry and a performance by “American Idol” alum Edi Callier. The festivities continue Saturday, June 20 with a festival and community fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 2283 N. Fair Oaks Ave. in Altadena.

The gatherings carry added weight in a community still rebuilding. My Tribe Rise, founded in 2019 around a peace-and-unity mission it calls the P.E.A.C.E. movement — positive energy activates constant elevations — shifted much of its work after the fire toward recovery navigation, food and housing assistance, and direct support for displaced families. Its annual Juneteenth celebration has long doubled as a day of music, food and fellowship that brings Altadena and Pasadena neighbors together.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. In Altadena, the holiday lands this year as a chance to celebrate both that history and the community’s hard-won resilience.

Altadena’s Juneteenth celebrations will run on Friday, June 19 from 5 to 10 p.m. (Backyard Boogie night party) and Saturday, June 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (festival and community fair) at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 2283 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Altadena. See the My Tribe Rise website for additional information.