TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo's Juneteenth Celebration, which was slated to be held at Promenade Park Wednesday, has been canceled due to "very low" ticket sales, according to a social media post from the organization.
In the post, the organization said the entire event was canceled. During a Facebook live stream Wednesday morning, one organizer claimed the celebration only sold 92 tickets, 12 of which were complimentary. The event in total had a budget of $30,000, they said.
All food trucks and vendors will receive a full refund, according to the post. Additionally, those who had purchased tickets would also receive a full refund.
"We just ask that you be patient with us as we start that process," the post read. "No it should not take long to process."
WTOL 11 spoke with Cora Middlebrooks, a board member for the Toledo Juneteenth Celebration, who said she was upset about the development.
"It's disappointing that we just didn't get the full support of the public that we was hoping on this day," Middlebrooks said. "We always do it on Juneteenth. We don't do it before, or we try not to do it after. We try to do it on the day."
Middlebrooks also claimed the city of Toledo said they would supply the event with some amenities, but later retracted them, forcing the event planners to pay for the cost.
"They [the city] gave us the staging, and then they took it away," Middlebrooks said. "Support for the Porta Potties? Yeah, all that. And the fencing was supposed to already be here, but then that got taken away, too. So any event got pushed bakc which we were supposed to utilize, but now we can't utilize. We have to pay for it ourselves."
As for next year, Middlebrooks said Toledo's Juneteenth Celebration will make a return.
"This didn't break us down," she said. "This is going to make us go stronger, and we look forward to next year, not for sure where it'll be, but we're looking forward to doing this again. It's not going to stop."
Juneteenth, celebrated each year on June 19, is a federal holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States.
Juneteenth became an official national holiday in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.
For other Juneteenth events in northwest Ohio, see the list below:
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional information obtained during an interview.
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