PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The Juneteenth celebration in Pittsburgh’s Point State Park wasn’t guaranteed just a few weeks ago.
Originally, Pittsburgh city officials announced they would send $125,000 to its city-sponsored Juneteenth event instead of the one now in its 11th year. On top of that, the state originally told festival organizers they could not use Point State Park.
“It was a lot of ups and downs. We had to jump through a whole bunch of hurdles,” organizer William B. Marshall said.
The state reversed course, and Pittsburgh City Council voted on Tuesday to give the festival $125,000 as well.
“Without that funding, we wouldn’t be able to have the artists we have here. We probably wouldn’t be able to have the local talent we have involved in this program, and we would have had to cut back drastically on our show,” Marshall said.
In addition, without the funding, they would have had to cancel the older national acts planned for Market Square.
“With Mayor (Ed) Gainey’s decision to take money from us and give it to another party, the whole city was in an uproar. The whole city complained to city council about these actions, and we are so thankful city council decided to reinstate the money back to us because it was vital that we have this,” Marshall said.
He explained he was glad everything worked out so they could put on an event that he says everyone can enjoy.
“We are so happy that we were able to overcome everything that was going on here,” Marshall said.
There was music in the park, vendors on Liberty Avenue and more music in Market Square. The event runs through Sunday.
The city-sponsored event is planned for the end of the month.
