Our Vendors 2023

When the Juneteenth NYC organizing team began planning the 2023 marketplace, they set a goal of 90 vendors — a significant step up from the 64 who participated in 2022. What they received was 118 confirmed participants, plus a waiting list of more than 60 businesses eager to join the following year. The demand was not just a sign of growth. It was a signal that Black entrepreneurs in New York City were ready, organized, and hungry for a platform that took them seriously.

The 2023 marketplace introduced several structural changes that made it a stronger experience for both vendors and attendees. The festival team renegotiated its site agreement to expand the vendor area by 40 percent, creating wider aisles, more shade structures, and dedicated loading zones that reduced setup time and vendor stress. These operational improvements, small as they might sound, made an enormous difference in vendor morale and the overall quality of the marketplace experience.

The selection process was also formalized for the first time in 2023. In previous years, vendor curation had been relatively informal. In 2023, a five-person review committee was established, including a Black-owned business consultant, a festival marketing director, and three community representatives. The committee developed a standardized rubric for evaluating applications, which created greater consistency and transparency — and built vendor trust in the process.

Vendor Success Stories from 2023

The stories that emerged from the 2023 marketplace illustrated exactly why this program matters. In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Amara Diallo had been running a natural haircare business from her apartment kitchen since 2020. She applied to Juneteenth NYC 2023 on a friend's encouragement and was accepted into the wellness vendor category. By the end of day one of the festival, she had sold through her entire inventory — something that had never happened in three years of operating. More importantly, she connected with a buyer from a Harlem-based boutique chain who placed a wholesale order that tripled her monthly revenue.

In the food category, siblings Trevon and Latoya Jenkins brought their Queens-based jerk chicken and plantain business to the festival for the first time. The Jenkins family had been catering private events for four years, but Juneteenth NYC 2023 was their first public market experience. The response was overwhelming. They served more than 800 plates over the two-day festival and received inquiries from three event organizers who wanted to book them for fall gatherings. By October 2023, they had formally registered as a business entity and were on their way to a food truck launch the following spring.

Visual artist and printmaker Kezia Okafor used the 2023 marketplace as the launchpad for her first solo exhibition. After her prints sold out at the festival, she was approached by a gallery director from Harlem who had been browsing the art section. That conversation led to a three-month exhibition that opened in September 2023 — her first gallery show after nearly a decade of selling work independently online. "Juneteenth NYC gave me visibility I could never have bought," she said in an interview with a local arts publication.

Lessons Learned and Applied

The 2023 marketplace was not without its challenges. Vendor feedback collected through post-festival surveys revealed several areas for improvement. Chief among them: payment infrastructure. Many vendors struggled with mobile connectivity issues that affected their point-of-sale systems during peak traffic hours. The 2023 experience led directly to an investment in dedicated Wi-Fi infrastructure for the 2024 marketplace, ensuring that no vendor lost a sale due to connectivity problems.

Vendors also asked for better signage, more visible wayfinding, and a printed marketplace guide that attendees could use to navigate the six vendor zones. All three of these requests were implemented for 2024. The post-festival survey process became a permanent part of the Juneteenth NYC vendor program, with results shared transparently with all participants so that vendors themselves could see how their feedback was being acted upon.

Staffing was another 2023 learning. With 118 vendors and 22,000 visitors, the festival team was stretched thin in ways that made real-time problem solving difficult. For 2024, the vendor coordination team was expanded, with designated zone managers for each category and a dedicated vendor support line available throughout both days of the festival.

Categories Represented in 2023

The 2023 marketplace was organized across six categories. Food and beverage vendors were the largest group, representing 32 participants who offered everything from traditional soul food to Caribbean and West African cuisine. Fashion and apparel comprised 24 vendors, including several independent designers who were making their festival debut. The art and craft category included 21 participants — painters, sculptors, textile artists, and ceramicists whose work ranged from deeply traditional to boldly contemporary.

The wellness and beauty category, introduced for the first time in 2023, attracted 18 vendors including natural skincare brands, herbal practitioners, and fitness and mindfulness businesses. Books, media, and education accounted for 14 vendors, including four independent publishing imprints. The home goods and family category rounded out the marketplace with 9 participants offering children's educational products, home décor, and family lifestyle goods.

Compared to 2022, the 2023 marketplace saw a 35 percent increase in vendor numbers, a 60 percent increase in direct sales, and a doubling of media coverage. Those numbers were the foundation on which the 2024 marketplace was built — and the reason the 2025 program is expanding to a three-day format for the first time.

Testimonials from 2023 Vendors

"I had heard about Juneteenth NYC but never thought of it as a place to sell. A friend convinced me to apply and I almost didn't go through with it. I am so grateful I did. I made more in two days than I had in the two months before." — Vendor, wellness category

"The organization was impressive. I've done other festivals in the city and the level of communication and support from the Juneteenth NYC team before, during, and after the event was on a different level." — Vendor, fashion category

"Being surrounded by other Black business owners for a full weekend, supporting each other, cheering each other on — that alone was worth it. The sales were a bonus." — Vendor, art category

If the 2023 marketplace proved that Black business can fill a festival with purpose and power, then it also laid a clear charge for what comes next. We invite you to explore the 2024 vendor program to see how those lessons became a legacy. And if you are a Black-owned business ready to join the community, visit our registration page or submit a nomination to get started on the path to participation in 2025.

Every festival year teaches something new. The 2023 Juneteenth NYC marketplace taught the organizing team that vendor programs succeed not because of size or scale, but because of intentionality. When vendors feel respected, supported, and genuinely celebrated, they bring their best work. When they bring their best work, attendees respond with genuine enthusiasm and sustained purchasing. And when that purchasing reaches record levels, the entire economic ecosystem around the festival strengthens.

The 2023 marketplace generated $820,000 in direct vendor sales over the festival weekend. But the downstream economic impact — follow-on orders, wholesale agreements, retail placement, media coverage, and new customer relationships — was estimated at more than $2 million in the twelve months following the event. For the small and medium-sized businesses that make up the majority of Juneteenth NYC vendor participants, those kinds of outcomes are not routine. They are life-changing.

The 2023 experience also deepened the festival's commitment to supporting first-time vendors. Of the 118 participants in the 2023 marketplace, 41 were participating in their first major festival. Of those 41, 35 went on to apply to future markets, festivals, and retail opportunities within the year. The pipeline effect — where Juneteenth NYC serves as a launching point rather than just a one-time event — became a measurable part of the program's impact story.

The Juneteenth NYC vendor marketplace is one part of a broader celebration that also includes the annual parade, the fashion shows, and the Black Kings dinner gala. Vendors who attend the full weekend of programming consistently report that the connections made at other events — the parade reception, the fashion show after-party, the dinner's networking hour — are as valuable as those made at the marketplace itself. We encourage all vendors to participate in the full Juneteenth NYC experience, not just their booth hours.

The 2023 marketplace was a milestone. It proved that the community was ready for something bigger, more organized, and more intentional. It set a standard that the 2024 program met and exceeded. And it laid the groundwork for a 2025 program that will bring three days of Black entrepreneurship to the heart of Harlem. We are proud of what 2023 built — and grateful to every vendor, customer, and community member who made it possible.