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Bishop Craig Coates doesn’t want to name names.

But, the organizer of Annapolis’ annual Juneteenth celebration said, eight of the event’s main sponsors have dropped their support for the two-day event this year. In total, Coates said the festival and parade lost about $150,000 in sponsorships and federal grant money.

This is the first time the celebration has ever faced a decrease in funding from the previous year, he said. To cover the losses, Coates has had to rely on community support and individual donations to fund the $185,000 project.

“We were so dependent upon our relationships we built,” Coates said. “It was just so shocking and disheartening when you’re getting these declines in the email.”

Though most didn’t say it outright, Coates said he could “read between the lines” that the sponsors’ decisions to cancel their support stemmed from the cuts to and dismantling of DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — programs.

But Coates worked to keep the funding cuts from dampening the celebration. It expanded from one day to two, and he expects about 3,000 people will attend the parade in downtown Annapolis on Saturday and more than 12,000 will come to the festival at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds.

“We’ve had hardships before, and yet in the midst of it, we celebrated,” he said. “We won’t put the spotlight on what’s been cut, but what we’re able to do despite those challenges.”

Annapolis Juneteenth’s financial struggles are not unique. Many Juneteenth celebrations across the country have been forced to scale back as they face decreased corporate sponsorships and lowered government support.

Still, not all events have fared as Annapolis has. Organizers of other Juneteenth celebrations across the state, from the National Harbor to the Eastern Shore, said their events have remained steady — or even gained more support than last year.

Lauren Fells, the marketing content manager at National Harbor and the organizer of its Juneteenth celebration, said the event has gained sponsors this year.

After starting with just one sponsor for the first event in 2022, Fells said this year’s celebration gained three more, including Ben & Jerry’s and the MGM National Harbor. She expects between 500 and 1,000 people will attend the event Thursday.

“Every year seems to be where more people are interested in really wanting to make sure that they are a part of the community, and they reach out through these types of cultural events,” Fells said.

Juneteenth, the nation’s newest federal holiday, is celebrated on June 19 each year and honors the ending of slavery in the U.S. The date commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger led troops to Galveston, Texas, where they delivered the news that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved were free.

After more than 150 years without nationwide recognition, former U.S. President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.

Makya Purnell, the president and co-founder of Eastern Shore Juneteenth, said the celebration has grown significantly since the organization’s first event in 2018. After starting in a cultural center’s backyard, the organization hosts its parade and festival in downtown Salisbury.

While the celebration on Saturday has three fewer sponsors this year, Purnell said she didn’t know whether there was a political reason for their lack of support or not. Overall, she said the event has remained steady.

Purnell said larger events which rely on corporate sponsors may have been more impacted than celebrations like Eastern Shore Juneteenth, as its sponsors are primarily local.

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“When you build those local relationships, I don’t think that there’s going to be much impact,” she said.

But some celebrations scaled back for different reasons.

The NAACP’s Allegany County branch, which usually hosts an annual festival and parade, opted for a smaller community BBQ after focusing much of its efforts this year on turning a historically Black playground in Cumberland into a community garden.

Tifani Fisher, president of the chapter, said the group will host a new festival this September which will highlight the experience of being Black in Appalachian Maryland. The chapter’s Juneteenth festival will return next year, however.

But Fisher said she has seen the second Trump administration and cutbacks to DEI programs created a sense of wariness among donors and corporate sponsors.

“We haven’t experienced that here locally, and part of that is that we’re just a tight-knit community,” Fisher said. “Those who have supported our Juneteenth festival and the branch’s work are still those who support that.”

LaTisha Gasaway-Paul, president of the Scotland Juneteenth Heritage Festival, said the weeklong celebration in Montgomery County has continuously grown since 2021. The festival has added three new events this year, and has also grown in sponsors, increasing to 17 this year from about a dozen last year, she said.

The festival, which she said drew more than 10,000 people across all its events last year, is located in Scotland, a historically Black community in the Potomac area of Montgomery County. The community started off as 36 acres purchased in 1880 by Gasaway-Paul’s great-great grandfather, William Dove.

After a surge in development in Potomac in the 1960s, she said local residents tried to force the Scotland community off their land, leading to the creation of a campaign to protect the community. She said she feels the weight of preserving her community and its legacy.

Gasaway-Paul said that for her, Juneteenth is more than just a date on a calendar.

“It’s the date that we endure the spirit of the ancestors, the resilience of our people and the promise of a future fate shaped by justice, truth and unity,” Gasaway-Paul said. “It’s the sacred remembrance of freedom.”