On Tuesday, Summerfest and Northcott Neighborhood House announced four additional acts to add to the festival’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration. In December, the festival announced the first set of artists for the celebration, with programming to take place on the opening night of this year’s three-weekend run, June 19th. 

The celebration follows Milwaukee’s traditional Juneteenth Day parade and festival along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, and will bring dedicated programming to multiple festival ground stages beginning at the 6 p.m. time slot. The latest artists joining the lineup include Fabolous, The Isley Brothers as well as Milwaukee natives Eric Benét, The Shonn Hinton Experience, and Buffalo Nichols.They’ll join previously announced acts Gary Clark Jr., Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Ginuwine, Joy Oladokun, and Mike Jones as part of the Juneteenth celebration.

The Isley Brothers will take the stage at BMO Pavilion on the opening night of the festival, with Milwaukee’s own Benét serving as the opening act. Stage assignments for Hinton and Buffalo Nichols have not been announced yet, but will likely come out when the rest of the ground stage headliners are revealed.

The annual Milwaukee Juneteenth Day celebration is one of the longest-running in the nation, drawing thousands of people each year. Summerfest and Northcott Neighborhood House announced the partnership for Juneteenth programming back in August, along with the three-weekend run for 2025. 

Presale tickets for The Isley Brothers with Eric Benét go on sale this Thursday via the Summerfest website and Ticketmaster. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. and include admission to the Summerfest grounds for that day.

Summerfest will return for three weekends in 2025, taking place from Thursday-Saturday on June 19-21, June 26-28, and July 3-5 of next year. Read more about that here.