Baltimore celebrates Preakness weekend with AfroPreak at Power Plant Live!

With Pimlico Race Course under construction and the 151st Preakness Stakes moving to Laurel Park, Baltimore’s race-weekend energy is shifting downtown instead of disappearing. Power Plant Live! is leaning into that change with Afro-Preak, a fashion-forward mix of music, culture, horse racing, food and socializing that gives the city a place to gather while the Black-Eyed Susans run outside Baltimore proper.

Afro-Preak is set for Saturday, May 16, 2026, starting at 2:00 p.m. at Power Plant Live! in downtown Baltimore. The venue describes it as a cultural festival celebrating Black creativity, community and expression, and organizers say the event will include live music, a karaoke bar, a VIP lounge and screens showing the races. That setup is meant to recreate the feel of a Preakness weekend gathering, even as the main race is held at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland.

The Preakness Stakes itself is expected to be tightly controlled this year. WMAR reported the 151st running will be capped at 4,800 attendees, that tickets are already sold out and that there will be no infield entertainment. For Baltimore bars, restaurants and event spaces, that makes off-track celebrations even more important: the spending and social traffic that usually follows race day can still flow through city venues built to host it.

Afro-Preak is being mounted as a collaboration among Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, the Office of the First Lady of Maryland’s month-long Preakness initiative, The Finn Group and DCHASE Presents. Dawn Moore’s office says she co-chairs the Preakness Festival, tying the event to a broader statewide push to use public-private partnerships to drive tourism and economic activity. In practical terms, that means the race weekend is still functioning as a Baltimore business opportunity, even without the grandstands at Pimlico.

The celebration also fits into a larger transition for the city’s racing identity. State officials say the Preakness will return to a reimagined Pimlico in 2027, after a redevelopment plan that includes full renovation of the racetrack, hotel and event-space construction, a new off-site training facility and a $10 million investment in Park Heights housing, job training, workforce development and other local priorities. When that work is complete, Pimlico is expected to host roughly 120 racing days a year.

Afro-Preak is not new to the scene. WMAR reported in 2024 that the lounge had returned to Pimlico for the 149th Preakness Stakes, that it was in its third year and that 90% of the vendors were African-American-owned companies. In 2026, the event is moving from an infield activation to a downtown showcase, but its purpose is unchanged: keep the race weekend visible, local and rooted in Baltimore’s Black cultural life.