Taylor Pace Orchestra, Comedy, Poetry, and Food Trucks: Lewisville's Juneteenth Celebration Comes to Wayne Ferguson Plaza

A Free Night of Music, Laughter, and Community on June 19

On Thursday, June 19, the City of Lewisville will host its Juneteenth celebration at Wayne Ferguson Plaza, 150 W. Church St., from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and it draws on the enduring tradition of communities coming together to share stories, music, and joy — the same impulse that has shaped Juneteenth gatherings for generations.

It is one of the fuller evenings the city has programmed this summer. Where most of the Tuesday night Sounds of Lewisville concerts focus on a single headliner, the Juneteenth Cookout spreads the program across multiple art forms: live music anchors the night, but comedy, poetry, and visual arts all have a place on the bill, and food trucks will be set up on the plaza grounds.

The Taylor Pace Orchestra Takes the Stage

Headlining the concert portion is the Taylor Pace Orchestra, performing the songs of Earth, Wind & Fire. That catalog is a deliberate choice for a Juneteenth celebration. Earth, Wind & Fire built a sound that folded soul, funk, jazz, and R&B into something genuinely hard to categorize — music rooted in Black artistic tradition that has resonated across decades and demographics. A full orchestra treatment of that material, outdoors on a summer evening, is a particular kind of experience: the horn lines and rhythm arrangements that made those recordings feel monumental tend to hit differently when they are being produced live in front of you rather than through a speaker.

The Taylor Pace Orchestra brings that scope to a venue that is suited for it. Wayne Ferguson Plaza, in the heart of Old Town Lewisville, has become a reliable outdoor stage over the years, and the surrounding streetscape gives the night a genuine neighborhood feel rather than the impersonal scale of a large festival ground.

Comedy, Poetry, and Visual Arts Round Out the Evening

The music is the loudest element, but the Juneteenth Cookout is intentionally broader than a concert. Comedy and poetry are both on the program, which reflects something real about how Juneteenth has traditionally been observed — as a community gathering rather than simply a performance. Spoken-word artists and comedians working in that context are typically engaged with the specific weight and meaning of the occasion, and the pairing with visual art reinforces the curatorial instinct behind the event.

Visual arts programming alongside live performance is not the default for outdoor city events, and its inclusion here is worth noting. It invites a different kind of attention and engagement from attendees — the chance to slow down and look, rather than simply listen.

Food Trucks on the Plaza

Food trucks will be present throughout the evening. For an event explicitly framed around the cookout tradition, that is a meaningful detail. The communal meal has always been part of how Juneteenth is marked, and the plaza setup — where people can eat, move around, and take in different parts of the program without being locked into fixed seating — supports the kind of informal, neighborly gathering the city seems to be going for.

Old Town Lewisville provides the right backdrop for that. The district has enough foot traffic and surrounding character that arriving early and walking the area before the program begins is a reasonable way to spend the evening.

What to Know Before You Go

The event runs from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, at Wayne Ferguson Plaza, 150 W. Church St. Admission is free. Food trucks will be on site, so there is no need to eat beforehand unless you prefer to.

Parking in Old Town is generally manageable on weeknights, though the plaza draws a crowd when the programming is strong, and this bill is strong. Arriving closer to 7 than to 8 gives you the best chance of settling in before the Taylor Pace Orchestra begins.

For those who have been following the summer calendar in Lewisville, June 19 falls in the middle of an unusually well-programmed stretch. The Sounds of Lewisville series has been running on Tuesdays, the Lewisville Grand has its own lineup going, and LLELA’s summer nature camps are underway. The Juneteenth Cookout sits apart from all of that — it is not a series installment but a standalone civic occasion, and the city has built a program worthy of it.

Full details are available through the City of Lewisville’s events calendar.