Juneteenth Festival joins forces with Visit PGH to examine economic impact of celebration
Last year, Juneteenth became the newest federally-recognized holiday. The holiday marks the end to slavery in the United States.
Multiple celebrations have been held all over the city, but one of the largest events is Pittsburgh’s Juneteenth Festival.
The festival has been growing in population over the past few years.
This year, festival organizers are working with Visit PGH to learn more about the economic impact of the celebration.
“It is not a Black holiday. It’s not a Black celebration. It’s an American holiday. It’s an American second Independence Day. And that’s how we promote it. So the Juneteenth festival is for everybody,” said event organizer William Marshall. “Every year it’s been growing; it’s been very big. The first year we had 75 people. Last year we had over 100,000 people.”
Marshall said the festival brings in people from across the country — but the big draw is the entertainment with big names like Arrested Development.
The events of the festival run for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Due to the length of the celebration, Marshall figured an economic examination would be a good move.
“What we did this year is partnered with Visit PGH, so they are going to do an economic survey of the number of people that come into the festival, the number (of) people coming from out of town, how much money they’re going to spend,” said Marshall.
Marshall will also organize the fourth annual Black Music Fest on July 14 through 17.
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