Juneteenth celebration to include fireworks despite questions surrounding security at Point State Park

The Juneteenth celebration in Pittsburgh will conclude with fireworks Monday night after weeks of questions surrounding security at Point State Park for the fireworks show, officials said.

“We expect the fireworks to happen tonight. Everything should be in place,” said Wesley Robinson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Private event organizer William B. Marshall had previously seemed to go back-and-forth on social media about whether fireworks would happen. He did not respond to inquiries from the Tribune-Review on Monday, but his event’s Facebook page included fireworks in a post outlining the day’s activities and said they would start around 9:35 p.m.

The annual Western Pennsylvania Juneteenth celebration has been held at Point State Park since 2018, but there were issues this year in ensuring the necessary security was in place.

Local and state officials said they never intended to cancel the celebration, but there were questions about whether event organizers had gotten private security to conduct bag checks at Point State Park. Event sponsors for any medium or large events — including festivals, celebrations, races and events with live concerts or fireworks displays — must “secure the services of a DCNR-approved on-site and overnight security provider,” according to special event guidelines posted on DCNR’s website.

It remained unclear Monday whether Juneteenth event organizers had complied with this requirement or if other measures were in place.

Marshall previously told the Tribune-Review he did not intend to hire the required security. In a Facebook post last week, he shared screenshots of what appear to be emails between Juneteenth event organizers and DCNR officials that indicated Juneteenth organizers had yet to obtain the proper security.

Maria Montaño, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, last week said Pittsburgh police could not conduct the bag checks required for the event, but would be on hand to patrol like they would with any other private event in the city.

“There’s been conversations about whether or not the city police should be doing those (bag) checks,” she said. “It is our understanding as a city that it would be a constitutional violation for our officers to search people’s bags because we don’t have reasonable suspicion. Our sworn officers cannot do those bag checks.”

Montaño said the city was prepared for the fireworks, with police and EMS personnel slated to be stationed in the area.