Nearly a year after 22-year-old Isaiah Knight was shot and killed at Tulsa’s Juneteenth Festival, attendees at the 2026 event can expect a condensed schedule and tighter security measures.
Before the celebration begins June 19, organizers are asking for patience. They say the additional security is meant to keep people safe and help the festival maintain enough funding to stay free.
Lauren Corbitt-Evans, executive director of Tulsa Juneteenth Inc., said they have about $100,000 less to spend this year than they did in 2025. That’s a large reason why the three-day festival features more condensed programming.
One key change from last year is making online registration mandatory for everyone, Corbitt-Evans explained during a town hall meeting Thursday night.
Security check points and bag checks
Entry to the festival will only be allowed through designated security check points. Attendees will have the opportunity to register on-site, but proof of registration is required.
Organizers are only allowing clear bags and each item brought into the festival will be searched, Corbitt-Evans said.
“So, if you have a lawn chair, they may ask you to unfold your lawn chair. If you have a cooler, we will open your cooler. If it’s ice and drinks in there, we will rummage your ice around a little bit,” she said. “If you do not want us to do that, you will be asked to take your cooler back to your car or your house and you will not be allowed to bring it in.”
Mandating registration will also provide data that could help organizers secure future funding for the multi-day festival.
“We are getting into the weeds of not having enough funding where I can continue a free festival,” she said. “If the funding looks like it looks this year, next year we will be charging.”
Corbitt-Evans encouraged community members to help sustain the event by donating directly, purchasing official merchandise or buying a commemorative “Remembering Black Wall Street” license plate.
This year’s festival opens with a prayer and worship ceremony Friday, something Corbitt-Evans said was necessary after Knight’s killing.
She said the shooting and its aftermath had a profound effect on her.
“Transparently, this has been a very, very, very rough year trying to bounce back from trauma, from just a lack of resources, a lack of support, backlash, potential lawsuits, the list goes on,” Corbitt-Evans said.
She pondered whether to even bring the festival back this year.
“It wasn’t until maybe February that I really decided, ‘OK, I’m going to do this,’” she said.
No unaccompanied minors
Off-duty police officers and the Tulsa Police Department are assisting with securing the perimeter of the event. Volunteers with the Terence Crutcher Foundation’s Peace Keepers will also walk the grounds.
There will be more focus on minors, too.
Attendees 18 and under will not be allowed in without a parent on-site, she said.
“We will be asking them to find their parents or they will have to leave. No one will be able to be at the festival as a youth, 18 and under without a parent,” Corbitt-Evans said at the town hall.
Most of this year’s festivities — including the wellness expo and performance by headliner Lakeside — will occur Saturday. Those events will have a “hard stop” at 11 p.m., Corbitt-Evans said.
“Don’t expect to be there past 11,” she emphasized.
She told The Eagle she’s met with TPD several times over the past few months to make sure their security plans are aligned.
“One of the things we’ve been discussing is how do we police without overpolicing. It’s kind of hard to sometimes decipher what is too much and what is not enough when you’re dealing with thousands of people,” she said.
Some attendees at this year’s Black Wall Street Rally in May criticized how the police department handled dispersing crowds at the end of the night.
“At 11 p.m. when we conclude, we are asking everybody not to just leave the premises but to leave the surrounding areas,” she said, adding that officers will assist with communications and getting people to the official shuttle service that will take them out of the downtown area.
‘A safe and celebratory environment’
As of Thursday night, 6,500 people had registered for the festival, she said. State Sen. Regina Goodwin, one of a few dozen people who attended the town hall, asked organizers how they’ve prepared to prevent “a bottleneck” of people at the entry points.
Corbitt-Evans said they have a plan in place and volunteers will help make sure lines aren’t too long.
Theria Hilliard attended the town hall and told The Eagle the session gave her clarity around the new security measures.
“I went last year and was just concerned because there were a lot of youth that seemed like they didn’t have any guardianship around,” she said. “(The town hall) made me feel a little more comfortable.”
She said she appreciates the sentiment behind the history of Juneteenth. She also enjoys “the camaraderie, seeing people you haven’t seen in a while, hanging out with friends and getting some good food.”
Corbitt-Evans said Knight’s killing was the first time violence overshadowed the celebration. She’s looking forward to getting back to the essence of the event.
“I know that we can have a safe and successful event. We’ve done it for 12 years,” she said. “So I’m really just looking forward to getting back to providing a safe and celebratory environment and event for our community and the nation. We have a lot of people that travel to Tulsa for this that really support what it is that we’ve been doing for so long.”
