Park Heights festival keeps Preakness spirit, boosts local businesses

Park Heights tried to keep Preakness dollars local this weekend, even as the 151st Preakness Stakes ran at Laurel Park and Pimlico sat behind fencing and black tarp during redevelopment. The fifth annual George “Spider” Anderson Music & Arts Festival stretched along the 4800 block of Park Heights Avenue, from Cold Spring Lane to Belvedere Avenue, and turned the corridor into a test of whether race-day energy could still bring business to the neighborhood.

The street festival ran Saturday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. and featured Big Daddy Kane, K. Michelle and other performers. Park Heights Renaissance said the event was designed to keep Preakness-related foot traffic and spending in the community while the race is away from Baltimore, a temporary shift that has put the biggest crowds at Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County.

Yolanda Jiggetts, the organization’s CEO, said the group deliberately kept the Preakness spirit in Park Heights because of concerns that the move could cut into local commerce. The festival also carried the name of George “Spider” Anderson, who won the Preakness in 1889 and is recognized as the first Black jockey to win the race, tying the weekend’s celebration to Baltimore’s racing history as well as its present-day economy.

For neighborhood businesses, the stakes were immediate. Yai & Toya’s Cuisine said last year’s Preakness crowds brought a major surge in customers, and the restaurant initially saw the Laurel move as a setback. The Anderson Festival gave business owners a way to stay connected to the weekend visitor economy, even with the race itself held miles away.

The timing matters because Baltimore’s racing tradition now runs on two tracks at once. Maryland says all racing and training are taking place at Laurel Park during the Pimlico rebuild, and the state’s redevelopment plan describes a $400 million bond-financed project, supplemented by about $140 million in cash from the Racing and Community Development Financing Fund. Officials say the Laurel Park acquisition and restructuring should save the state more than $50 million overall, including an estimated $26.3 million in construction costs and $2.5 million a year in operating expenses.

Demolition at Pimlico began July 24, 2025, after the 150th Preakness Stakes, and the track is expected to return to Baltimore in 2027. The rebuilt site is planned to include a year-round racing facility and an exhibition on Maryland thoroughbred racing, African American jockeys and Preakness history. For Park Heights, the question now is whether this year’s festival produced a real neighborhood payday or mainly preserved the feeling of a tradition that has temporarily moved elsewhere.