For the first time in its decade-long history, Strange Folk Festival won’t be in O’Fallon, Illinois, this year, and the city is blaming festival founder Autumn Wiggins for causing the split-up with “misunderstanding, rancor and conflict.”
Strange Folk’s new home will be at Union Station during the last weekend of September. After 2015, the festival’s future remains uncertain.
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Update, June 22: The last time SLM talked to Autumn Wiggins, she was in tears over her struggle with O’Fallon, Illinois, for ownership of the Strange Folk Festival.
“When O’Fallon was starting to hint that it was going to take [the festival] away from me, that sent me over the edge,” Wiggins tells SLM, adding that O’Fallon, her hometown, was “going to completely ruin what I had spent ten years creating.”
Wiggins was planning to put the show on hiatus, but she reconsidered after talking to fellow artists and festival vendors who depended on revenue raised during the festival.
“For many [vendors,] it’s the biggest show of the year,” Wiggins says. “They start to depend on the income from it.”
As vendors reminded Wiggins of the festival’s city-wide impact, she started looking seriously at Union Station as a possible venue. The transportation hub-turned-mall offered to host this year’s festival before an upcoming remodeling project. Wiggins says she agreed to hold 2015 Strange Folk Festival after being inspired by the possibilities offered at Union Station—not to exact revenge over O’Fallon.
“’No hate, fresh start’ has been my motto since all this came into being,” Wiggins says. “I didn’t move Strange Folk out of spite. I wouldn’t have moved it anywhere if I didn’t find something that inspires me.”
Here’s how Wiggins describes her vision for this year’s event on the festival website: “Over the weekend of September 25th-September 27th, 2015 I will be coordinating 200 talented makers, 10+ live bands, and a whole lot of whimsy throughout the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors of Union Station’s shopping mall. Nearly every un-leased retail store, along with restaurant seating/serving areas will be creatively merchandised, and a portion of the parking shed will be dedicated to food, drinks, and outdoor installations. Bands will be perched up at the old Hooters, playing to audiences both inside and out.”
Wiggins says her new plans for Strange Folk mean she won’t have time to continue her retail store Upcycle Exchange on South Grand. Wiggins plans to close the store July 1 and move a smaller version to Cherokee Street, where she’ll limit retail hours and more focus on her online offerings.
But what about the long-term future for Strange Folk? Will Wiggins go on hiatus again after 2015? For now, Wiggins isn’t saying.
“I have too much going on for this year to worry about next year,” Wiggins says. “I will probably decide next winter if and when I am going to bring it back.”
End of update. Continue reading for our original story.
Wiggins went public with her complaints against O’Fallon in April. After ten years of growing the festival into the Midwest’s largest indie art festival, Wiggins told officials in O’Fallon, her hometown, that she wanted to take a hiatus from this year’s event. Wiggins thought that meant the entire festival would take a hiatus with her.
“I should just be able to end it,” Wiggins told SLM in April. “It was mine to do with as I please, because I never signed anything that said that they owned it.”
See also: Strange Folk Festival’s Future Is Uncertain as Founder, O’Fallon Clash on Ownership
But O’Fallon didn’t see why the popular festival had to halt just because one of its many volunteers needed time off. The Parks and Recreation Department continued planning for the festival and asked Wiggins to hand over the passwords to the festival’s social media pages.
Wiggins sent the city two cease and desist letters and applied to trademark the festival’s name. But when O’Fallon sent an email to vendors that included an altered version of the 2014 illustrated logo, Wiggins cried copyright infringement, released a statement about the conflict (which she called Glittergate) and took her fight public.
“The O’Fallon Parks Dept. simply cannot do Strange Folk without me, so every action they take looks foolish,” Wiggins says in the statement.
On Wednesday, O’Fallon officially announced that it cancelled the festival “as a result of controversy created by former Arts Commission member Autumn Wiggins” and would consider hosting a different festival for the same weekend in the future.
“Given the misunderstanding, rancor and conflict, we have concluded at this point that it will be very difficult to hold a successful Strange Folk Festival or any kind of arts festival in the City of O’Fallon this year, and that is unfortunate,” Assistant City Administrator Pamala Funk says in the statement. “There are no winners in this situation, and the losers are the City’s residents.”
After the city’s announcement, Wiggins released an illustration for a 2015 logo showcasing the festival’s new location, St. Louis’ Union Station, with promises to release more information later.
Here’s the full statement from O’Fallon:
It is with much regret that the City of O’Fallon announces it will not be holding its annual arts festival this year as a result of controversy created by former Arts Commission member Autumn Wiggins. The City began this event in 2004 with the purpose to provide opportunities for residents to experience and interact with the arts. The art festival was the work of many committed and dedicated people, including the City’s Arts Commission, numerous employees of the City of O’Fallon’s Department of Parks and Recreation, and a host of volunteers. Through the enthusiasm, creative thinking and hard work of these people, including Ms. Wiggins, the arts festival, known in recent years as the Strange Folk Festival, evolved and grew into a very successful event. Community events such as the Strange Folk Festival are part of why it is great to live in O’Fallon. We are saddened that the City’s efforts to maintain such a “feel good” event as the Strange Folk Festival caused such rancor and conflict. If there are no good feelings about holding the event, however, then there is no point in having it. The Strange Folk Festival was never about making money – it was about promoting the arts and doing something good for O’Fallon. Given the misunderstanding, rancor and conflict, we have concluded at this point that it will be very difficult to hold a successful Strange Folk Festival or any kind of arts festival in the City of O’Fallon this year, and that is unfortunate. There are no winners in this situation, and the losers are the City’s residents. The City will reevaluate the event and, if there is support for an arts festival in O’Fallon in the future, then we hope people will volunteer to assist the Arts Commission to develop a community event we all can enjoy.
