A large-scale Juneteenth celebration near Albany scheduled for next weekend has been canceled over a lack of permits.
The event commemorating the end of slavery was to have taken place on June 19 and 20 at the Altamont Fairgrounds. The facility’s board of directors told the Albany Times-Union that multiple permits regarding health and safety precautions weren’t completed or issued.
Event organizer Greg Kornegay told the newspaper he had secured a permit from the county health department, insurance, a COVID-19 guidance plan, security and safety protocols..
He said he had suggested setting crowd capacity lower to avoid having to issue a permit for a large gathering, but that fairgrounds representatives had stopped returning his messages Friday. He said he had sold about 1,000 tickets and would refund the money if he was unable to find a new location.
Kornegay said Chicago-based Lil Durk was to have headlined on Sunday and Busta Rhymes was scheduled to perform Saturday.
“It was going to be historic,” Kornegay said. “For them to go ahead and push the button and cancel it rather than work with us, I feel slighted here.”
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