This year's Emancipation Celebration in Windsor's Lanspeary Park is postponed to next year.
Organizers couldn't find the funding for this year, and "we didn't want to run with more or less a skeleton celebration," says President of the Emancipation Celebration Committee, Bradley Wade Jones.
He says the past two years, members of the committee and a few local businesses have foot the $7,000 bill for the park rental, equipment and other fees.
This year, some members have had deaths in the family, and the businesses say they're going through a tough year.
"You can't get water from a stone," he says.
Jones says the committee will instead spend the next year finding more sustainable ways to fund it including the possibility of applying for a Canada 150 grant. He says they've teamed up with other events facing similar challenges.
Already he says different businesses have offered help.
For next year's celebration, Jones hopes to introduce a parade to Lanspeary Park.
The event is a multicultural celebration of the 1833 Emancipation Act which abolished slavery in the British colonies.
