Village Fair okayed with hours to be determined
The Birmingham City Commission on Monday, November 18, approved a permit for the annual Village Fair, sponsored by the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce, to be held May 28 through June 1 of 2025, but the exact hours of operation for the event have yet to be determined.
This will be the 60th Village Fair for the city of Birmingham but how late each evening the event will be allowed to operate became an issue following a fight between high school students that marred the event in 2024.
In past years the Village Fair ran from noon each day until 10 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday evenings the event operated until 11 p.m.
Birmingham Police Chief Scott Grewe, after meeting with chamber of commerce and other officials, proposed at the city commission meeting that the Village Fair end operations in 2025 at 8 p.m. each night. Grewe noted that other communities in Oakland County have cancelled events similar to the Village Fair because of unruly behavior, including fights, by teen groups. Limiting the evening hours was viewed as a compromise to avoid problems in what has long been considered a family-focused, community affair.
Grewe also explained at one point in the meeting that a 2024 fight involving some members of Brother Rice and Seaholm high schools ended with four teenagers being formally charged with aggravated assault, along with repercussions from school officials.
A number of city commissioners and members of the public at the meeting were not willing to buy into the compromise ending hours for the Village Fair, among them former long-time businessman Richard Astrein, who captured the sentiment of others by saying he didn’t “want to be held hostage to a couple of kids.”
Although city commissioner Katie Schafer said she felt 11 p.m. was too late for a closing time on the weekends, most objected to the 8 p.m. proposed time change and some, like commissioner Clinton Baller, objected to a propose 9 p.m. closing before it is even dark outside.
Cheryl Daskas, co-owner of the women’s fashion outlet Tender, noted that the event “brings a ton of business to downtown Birmingham” and offered that an 8 p.m. closing was “too early” for the event which she admitted attending as she grew up.
Chamber president Joe Bauman was questioned about the Village Fair and the economic impact of reduced hours of operation. Bauman noted that closing early each day amounted to a loss of eight hours of the event which serves both as the business group’s major fundraiser, along with a loss for non-profit community group which received $20,000 last year in exchange for helping out at the Village Fair. The chamber of commerce pays a fee to the city for police and fire department support for the event.
Also questioned at the meeting was Danny Huston, owner of North American Midway Entertainment, which has for years produced this event as well as multiple similar events across the country. Huston was asked specifically what the economic impact would be with reduced hours of daily operation and he estimated that the revenue loss would be about 25 percent.
A number of those attending the meeting, including representatives of community groups, made suggestions of possibly working with local high schools to make students aware that a repeat of the 2024 fight at the event could result in the loss of the Village Fair in future years. There was also a suggestion from city commissioner Anthony Long that perhaps Bloomfield Township or the county sheriff could be approached about helping patrol the event in that the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce represents a number of local communities.
Eventually a motion was made and unanimously approved by the commission to okay the permit for the fair, with the hours of operation to be decided after what mayor Longe called a “good faith” effort by chamber, public safety officials and others to arrive at operating hours for the Village Fair, which would then be presented to the city commission.
