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Windsor
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Windsor Emancipation Celebration Festival

An enormous celebration of Freedom, held on the first weekend in August Emancipation Celebration was once the largest outdoor celebration of its kind in all of North America. It boasted colourful parades that made its way from the riverfront into Jackson Park celebration grounds, Miss Sepia Pageants, talent contest, concerts, family reunion picnics and community wide barbecues. In fact these cross-border celebrations drew the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. George Washington Carver, Jesse Owens, Diana Ross, Joe Louis, Eleanor Roosevelt and many other world renowned dignitaries annually to appear as guest speakers or simply to join the revelry of freedom. At its peak Emancipation celebration had over 250,000 in attendance.

Address
Festival Plaza - 370 Riverside Drive East (overlooking the Detroit River and skyline)
Price
Free/$5 for concerts/shows

Listing from Wikivoyage: Windsor (Ontario), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.