Colonial Williamsburg to Offer Free Admission on Juneteenth

Colonial Williamsburg, the largest outdoor living history museum in the nation, will be offering free admission to the Historic Area and Art Museum on June 19 to commemorate Juneteenth, the first time in its history to ever be open at no cost, with several new experiences to celebrate the holiday, too.

The living history museum will be free to the public from 9:00 a.m. through 4:30 p.m on June 19, 2022. As a member of the Juneteenth Community Consortium, it’s also providing several new experiences for the day, including tours and performances.

One such tour is a 60-minute walking tour called Freedom’s Paradox, which takes guests through the Peyton Randolph House and explores the paradox between slavery as an institution and the independence movement of the colonies against Britain.

Special performances for Juneteenth include A Taste of Freedom at the Hennage Auditorium, which shares the story of Americus Weston, a formerly enslaved man who escapes to Union camps in the South to be free. Another performance, Loquacious Lucy, Queen for a Day shares how an enslaved child named Lucy learns about her ancestors and slavery from her father at the Play House Stage.

“As a member of Greater Williamsburg’s Juneteenth Community Consortium, Colonial Williamsburg partnered as never before with a broad spectrum of organizations across the region to coordinate Juneteenth programming,” said Beth Kelly, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s vice president for education, research and historical interpretation.

“Because of the inclusive and community-focused nature of this holiday, we wanted to ensure that the entire community had access to the Juneteenth events we were planning which educate, commemorate, celebrate, and reflect on the Black experience in America. The struggle for freedom for Black people is and continues to be a part of America’s legacy which Colonial Williamsburg is committed to exploring.”