The waters were quiet.
No roaring race boats. No chattering crowds of spectators on the riverbanks.
For the first time in decades, there was no Three Rivers Regatta in Pittsburgh.
And that was just fine for myriad people who came out anyway on a beautiful Saturday in August.
Donald Dulaney, 50, of Oakmont, and his friends would never have been able to tie up their boats along a prime spot on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail on the North Side had the regatta gone on as expected, he said Saturday.
“We were planning to go further down [the river],” he said aboard Flinnigan’s Wake II, French toast sizzling nearby. “But since they aren’t having it we can come up here.”
He’ll miss the boat racing, he said, and feels bad for the nearby restaurants that ordered extra food and beefed up staffing in anticipation of the regatta crowds. But as regulars on the North Shore, he and his friends still planned to have a good time, with or without the longtime tradition of the regatta, which was scheduled for this weekend but abruptly canceled on Tuesday amid allegations of mismanagement by the event organizer, LionHeart Event Group.
The absence of the regatta didn’t keep folks from the North Shore, Point State Park or away from the rivers. Maya Henry, 40, of East Liberty, who’d scheduled a play date for her child at the water steps fountain along the North Shore Saturday morning, said she was glad to avoid the traffic and congestion the regatta’s half-million visitors could have created.
“We would have made this plan and forgotten about the regatta and then come down here and been like, ‘Oh no, it’s the regatta,’ ” she said with a laugh.
Rachel Kelly, 21, who works for Venture Outdoors renting kayaks under the Roberto Clemente Bridge, didn’t expect to open up shop at all Saturday — the kiosk usually closes during the regatta, she said.
“We’ve tried to open when the regatta is happening and it’s just hectic and not safe,” she said. She’d expected to spend the day at another of Venture Outdoors’ rental shops in North Park, but got the call midweek that it’d be business as usual in the wake of the regatta’s demise.
Across the way in Point Park, Rich Baehr, 61, of Mount Washington, stopped by a large sand sculpture that had been commissioned for the regatta.
“I come down here every year for the regatta,” he said, adding that he’s got a photo of each year’s sand sculpture.
“It’s amazing that they can do that,” he said of the artwork.
A stone’s throw behind Mr. Baehr, a small cadre of historical re-enactors were camped out in front of the Fort Pitt Museum, some cooking sausages over a fire and others cobbling together boots for a gathered crowd.
Justin Meinert, living history program coordinator at the museum, said the museum does such exhibitions once a month, and often tries to plan them for weekends with big events scheduled, like the regatta, in order to educate the most people.
But he said the group had seen a steady stream of onlookers Saturday, with about 200 people stopping by in the first hour.
“I’m surprised by the amount of public that is out,” he said, wondering aloud if the cancellation of the regatta encouraged visitors to branch out from the North Shore and visit other parts of the city.
A steady stream of bicyclists, pedestrians and boaters flowed around the Point State Park fountain, both on land and on water.
Julio Martinez, who was in town from New Jersey for Saturday’s Pirates game, surveyed the scene from a spot of shade under a tree. He’d never heard of the Three Rivers Regatta, and was just pleased to discover Point State Park.
“I said, ‘Let’s check out what’s under that bridge,’ ” he said, gesturing back toward the Portal Bridge and his Downtown hotel. “We just started walking and we found all this stuff.”
Shelly Bradbury: 412-263-1999, sbradbury@post-gazette.com or follow @ShellyBradbury on Twitter.
First Published: August 3, 2019, 8:22 p.m.
