The city of Indianapolis, Indiana, has canceled its annual Juneteenth parade due to "unavoidable scheduling conflicts," the event's organizers announced in a statement on Tuesday.
Indianapolis has held the Indy Juneteenth parade every June 19 for the last eight years, but the organization that coordinates the event was unable to agree upon a location.
"Due to unavoidable scheduling conflicts with other major events in the city, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the parade for 2025," Indy Juneteenth said in a statement on social media.
The co-founder and executive director of Indy Juneteenth, James Webb, told The Indianapolis Star that the organization and the city negotiated for months on a location but were unable to reach an agreement.
"We normally have this stuff done by November or December, but to try to put something together in a month and a half that we would normally take six months to do just wasn't realistic," he said.
"Unfortunately, the locations and the timing they requested coincided with special event permits that had already been issued," a spokesperson for the Indianapolis Department of Business and Neighborhood Services, Dawn Olsen, said in an email to the Star.
"Even though we won't have the parade this year, I'm still excited for the future," Webb added.
He noted that he's disappointed by the cancellation but said, "I just love being able to see the children celebrate the unity and seeing all the cultures around Indiana celebrating their God-given right of freedom."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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