Pittsburgh prepares for the Western PA Juneteenth Celebration

PITTSBURGH — On Thursday at 9 a.m., crews will start setting up the stage and vendors will put up their tents as they get ready for this year’s Western Pennsylvania Juneteenth Celebration.

Volunteers are putting up no-parking signs and they’re hoping for a repeat of last year, when they say 100,000 people came to Point State Park for the Western Pennsylvania Juneteenth Celebration.

“It’s America’s second Independence Day and everybody should be celebrating this, and we don’t just want to have a big party. We want people to have some consciousness about Juneteenth,” said Western Pennsylvania Juneteenth Celebration organizer William Marshall.

Marshall tells Channel 11 that the Juneteenth festival is not just for Black people.

“In the Civil War, over 600,000 people died on the Union side to free African slaves. Of that 600,000 people, 500,000 were white men that died to end slavery in America. Juneteenth is an American holiday,” said Marshall.

And with large crowds, dozens of vendors and musical acts set to take over parts of Downtown, Market Square and Point State Park over a three-day period, Marshall says safety is his number one priority.

“All of our Juneteenth festivals are safe. We don’t have arguments. Let alone fights or shootings. But we’re always prepared,” said Marshall.

He says that organizers plan to have 10 park rangers on duty, along with 20 Pittsburgh officers working different shifts for the entire festival weekend.

They’re also partnering with local hospitals to offer health screenings and a vaccine clinic as well.