{"id":308768,"date":"2026-05-10T08:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T08:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308768\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T08:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T08:37:10","slug":"sponsors-withdrawing-support-for-oakland-first-fridays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308768\/","title":{"rendered":"Sponsors withdrawing support for Oakland First Fridays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) \u2014 The future of a beloved event in Oakland is in question as organizers for Oakland\u2019s First Fridays street festival say several sponsors have withdrawn their support.<\/p>\n

For 13 years, First Fridays in downtown Oakland has brought the city together, but event director Venessa McGhee says that is now at risk.<\/p>\n

She blames the negative attention stemming from crime that happens in the area, even though it occurs hours after the event.<\/p>\n

McGhee says she doesn\u2019t think blaming the event is fair and says Oakland\u2019s First Fridays is a carefully planned gathering.<\/p>\n

Seven people were hurt last weekend<\/a> when a car plowed through a crowd after a fight near the Fox Theatre.<\/p>\n

Two people were arrested, and police are still searching for the driver.<\/p>\n

Back in March, another incident happened hours after First Fridays when a shooting at EZ\u2019s Lounge on 14th Street killed two people.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement sent to KRON4, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said, \u201cI want to be clear: These incidents occurred later in the evening, after the Oakland First Fridays events had officially concluded. We will continue to work with stakeholders to make the necessary strategic decisions to determine a path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGhee warns events like First Fridays create opportunities in the community for everyone involved, and it would be a big blow if it couldn\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) \u2014 The future of a beloved event in Oakland is in question as organizers for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[80154,143,145,144,129727],"class_list":["post-308768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-first-fridays","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-venessa-mcghee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}