Pittsburgh Soul Food Festival organizer fighting to keep location from moving

PITTSBURGH — This year an estimated 30,000 people gathered in Downtown Pittsburgh for the Soul Food Festival to enjoy entertainment, music and food. The founder said that the event boosted the economy for not only vendors but also local businesses, and now PPG Plaza said they want them out.

“This is another example of a corporation trying to push out Black people from an area,” said William Marshall, the founder of the Soul Food Festival.

Marshall said just one month after hosting his annual festival, he received an email from the landlords of PPG Plaza.

“They said noise our community and the things that we do bring too much noise. So you are saying our music becomes a noise to you or people become a noise to you, but the 200,000 white people who come down here for Picklesburgh, they are not a noise to you,” Marshall said.

We reached out to the landlords of PPG Plaza ourselves to ask about the request to move the festival, but have not heard back.

The festival’s location was intentional. When Marshall began the event in 2019, he wanted festivities to span from the Boulevard of the Allies, across PPG Plaza, and into Market Square, a former stop on the underground railroad and home to historic Black businesses.

“We got the city of Pittsburgh City Council to designate this area Pittsburgh Black Wall Street,” he said.

The event brings in large crowds and big-name performances each year as a celebration of Black history and culture.

“I think we started with maybe 1,000 people this year we are up to 30,000 people,” said Marshall.

Marshall also said there have been no negative incidents and the economic impact for the city is estimated to be around $3 million, so he doesn’t understand why his event would have to relocate.

“They can have all kinds of events down here in Downtown Pittsburgh that cater to our white brothers and sisters, and we are the only Black festival and they do not want us Downtown,” he explained.

Soul Food Festival founder is asking for people to write letters to petition the move by emailing jessica.canovali@jil.com.

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