Hiero Day Postponed to 2025 Amid Financial Difficulties

Hiero Day, the popular annual hip-hop festival in Oakland, has been canceled for 2024. Festival co-organizer and artist Tajai Massey told KQED that his team’s decision was due to financial difficulties, and that the event will return in 2025.

“We all sat down and regrouped and said, ‘Hey, let’s take some time, spend the entire year fundraising and then be ready for next year,’” said Massey, who produces Hiero Day with business partner Khari Bailey and a group of volunteers.

Part of those financial difficulties are debts incurred from 2023’s event, when Hiero Day threw a free, well-attended celebration for hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. Performers at the Labor Day event in Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza included Chicago rapper Common, Massey’s group Hieroglyphics and other local artists, including Cellski and Kev Choice.

Hiero Day hired local company Ungaffable Productions to provide the event’s stage production, operations and security. But company owner Tony Garcia alleges that Hiero Day still owes him $36,130 plus late fees for a range of services for Hiero Day 2023, including stages, sound systems and 125 staff members.

A frustrated Garcia told KQED he’s had to cover the costs himself, and still doesn’t have a timeline for when he’ll be paid back.

“Unfortunately, what I’ve had to do here is max out my credit cards, take out personal loans and pretty much use all of my savings to pay off a bunch of people,” said Garcia. The situation has strained his relationship with business partners, he added, and required him to put in extra hours at his day job as a union carpenter to provide for his son.

“I’m not a bank,” Garcia said. “I’m not rich.”

Bailey, who handles Hiero Day’s finances, declined to be interviewed. In an email to KQED, he blamed Hiero Day’s debts, in part, on the City of Oakland, which he said contributed less sponsorship money than it had promised. He declined to say which city department promised the funding, how much was promised or how much Hiero Day ultimately received.

“Some of the funds we were told were earmarked for us ended up not being paid to us by the City, which is the amount owed to Ungaffable Productions,” Bailey wrote in the email.

“[Garcia] has a legitimate gripe. And all we’re trying to do is make good on it,” Massey said.

When asked about the details of the City of Oakland’s sponsorship agreement with Hiero Day, Citywide Director of Communications & Engagement Sean Maher said in an email that the city waived police, fire inspection, custodial and other fees for the event, amounting to over $21,000. He wasn’t certain whether there were other discussions or arrangements about direct financial support, he said, and did not respond to multiple follow-up calls and emails.

Eleven months later, Garcia said he has no indication of when the money is coming. He’s filed complaints with the city attorney’s office, Labor Commissioner’s Office and Federal Trade Commission, and is considering legal action.

“This isn’t the route I wanted to take,” he said. “But [Hiero Day] left me no other option but to make this public.”