Three Rivers Regatta canceled
The Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, which had been due to happen this weekend, has been canceled.
Officials with the regatta, along with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, announced the cancellation at a news conference Tuesday at the Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
In a news release, Charles D. Scholz, a member of the regatta’s board of directors, said that after consulting with county and city leaders, the board concluded that the regatta had to be called off because the event management company overseeing the regatta “failed to provide the necessary assurances for a safe, sanctioned and fully coordinated event.”
Scholz continued, “They did not secure the mandatory insurance for it, which forced us to withdraw our application for an event permit.”
For several years, the regatta hired LionHeart Event Group, a full-service agent management and production company based in Pittsburgh, to handle the management of the regatta. This included purchasing insurance, securing permits, acquiring sponsors, contracting with food vendors and other duties. The news release announcing the regatta’s cancellation stated that the board learned last week that LionHeart “had misrepresented the status of payments and insurance related to the event and had not met critical benchmarks to ensure it could go forward.”
Organizers say they have launched a probe “to unravel what has transpired.”
First held in 1978, the Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta is an annual motorboat and river festival named for the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. It is the largest inland regatta in the nation. In past years, it has included free concerts, food vendors, water sports, dragon boat races and fireworks displays.