Norwich — The 28th Annual Juneteenth Celebration will be held Saturday, June 18, at the Howard T. Brown Memorial Park with the theme of “unity and community.”

The event, sponsored by the Norwich branch of the NAACP, will run from noon to 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

The celebration will start with a parade and a ceremony and will feature food and product vendors, crafts, entertainment and live music.

Two bounce houses will be on site for children.

The Danny Jenkins Memorial Award will be presented, and there will be a remembrance ceremony for Jenkins, the first chairman of the Juneteeth Celebration, and for former Norwich Alderman and NAACP Youth Council leader Terell Wilson, who died after a car crash this spring.

Mixed Blessings, a drum ensemble, will perform, along with Undefeated Entertainment.

Jamie Belliveau will be the master of ceremonies.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery in the U.S. It commemorates June 19, 1865 — the day Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved were free as declared in the Emancipation Proclamation.