Festivals in the Park
Franklin Park comes alive in the summer with salsa from Puerto Rico, food from the Caribbean, and dancing from the Dominican Republic. Cultural and community festivals fill the summer months--and fill the park with colorful costumes, lively music, exuberant families, and reunions.
It all begins with Juneteenth celebrating the emancipation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1965. Two years after President Lincoln's Empancipation Proclomation, the news finally reached Texas; the former slaves, moved by the significance of what they learned that June day, created a festival, which is now celebrated in black communities around the country. (see www.juneteenth.com for more info) Here in Franklin Park, Juneteenth is celebrated with family picnics, speeches, and music. The festival activities are centered around the Resting Place (Shattuck Picnic Grove), but revelers can be found all over the park on Juneteenth Saturday. Juneteenth is more often known as Roxbury Homecoming – and a homecoming it is! People born, raised or who just lived in Roxbury for a few years come back for a weekend of festivities.
In July, the Puerto Rican Festival (Festival Puertorriqueño de Massachusetts) takes place in Franklin Park. Founded in 1967, the festival is now Massachusett's largest Latino event, with over 250,000 people attending the three-day festival. The Festival features concerts, Caribbean food and artists, carnival rides, a dance floor, and a parade through Roxbury on the last day. There is also a flag raising ceremony at Boston City Hall.
The second weekend of August the park’s youngest festival celebrates the culture, arts, music and food of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Festival has a huge stage at one end of the Playstead, carnival rides and booths with food and crafts. A parade winds its way through Jamaica Plain to White Stadium on Sunday. Rivaling the other festivals in size, the Dominican Festival has huge local participation from the Dominican communities in and around Boston, the center of which is Egleston Square, bordering the park on the northwest corner.
The Saturday before Labor Day weekend the Caribbean Carnival comes to Franklin Park. Jouve opens Carnival day at 5:30 am, then a parade is held in the afternoon, going down Martin Luther King Blvd. in Roxbury, through Grove Hall and finally arrives at Franklin Park. With Calypso bands, multi-colored, magnificent costumes, and the King and Queen of Carnival, this festival celebrates the African roots of Caribbean culture. The festivities begin the week before, with the Kiddies Carnival taking place in Franklin Park’s White Stadium the Saturday before, and the King and Queen Contest occuring the Thursday before Carnival. The Carnival was started in 1973 by Trinidadians living in Boston, and is hosted by the Caribbean American Association of Boston.