09/18/2026
I wish it was the least bit surprising to find that the City of Charlotte, Michigan and their City Manager, Vester Davis Jr., are feckless, biased yokels with zero interest in impartiality and diversity, and that they're unwilling to order their clearly-biased police department (who is too cowardly to be taggable here on Facebook) to actually protect and serve. To sacrifice this kind of infusion of tourism and event revenue in your city is an incredibly asinine choice.
While I cannot say the Grand Rapids Police Department is any more dependable or likely to be ordered to do their actual job, I do think The City of Grand Rapids and Experience Grand Rapids understand enough about embracing all kinds of events, and they'd probably be glad to have the economic impact of A Festival of Oddities here in GR.
Examples like this are why the evolution of a city depends so greatly on the actions of leaders, and how leading with the guts to demand all parties rise to the occasion and the ethics needed to support growth and nurture an array of attractions is key. It's why myself and other fight so hard to get our city to put on it's big kid pants and grow up. There's plenty of room to do exactly that, still, but GR is certainly ahead of the game in some ways, already.
Kudos to this event for speaking out.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We have made the decision to pull A Festival of Oddities from the City of Charlotte.
TO BE CLEAR: This is NOT because of the actions of a few small, sweaty men who are so insignificant, they need megaphones to make their voices heard. And it is NOT an indictment of the museum staff (who we love) or the people of Charlotte, who have been welcoming and lovely as a whole. This decision was made in the interest of safety for our thousands of attendees. Keeping people safe outweighs "not letting them win" EVERY TIME. The lack of police response when we needed them during the festival and the actions of the city since have been disheartening, disappointing, and honestly appalling.
While we've been waiting for the City of Charlotte to step up and do the right thing, we've been actively being recruited by communities all around Mid-Michigan that would love to host the festival.
Over the past two weeks, we've been inundated with messages of support, but widely varying opinions- from "don't let them win" to "we won't come if you don't relocate" and everything in between. We've received offers to host from some really cool places, and beautiful messages from people that validated exactly why Charlotte was the right place to bring an event like this. It made people feel seen and safe in a community that's never been known for their acceptance of "others." We've felt so much love, but also the weight of so many conflicting opinions on the best way to move forward.
In the end, it was always going to come down to how the city handled the situation. It was not handled properly by the police the day of the event, but we were willing to accept that it was simply a case of them being ill-prepared for a situation like this during an event of this size. We had a meeting last week that was equal parts frustrating and productive. Given that the city had another big festival this past weekend, we were giving it until the end of this week for them to reach back out with some sort of resolution or plan of action. But then we had it suggested that we watch the video from this week's city council meeting, and that made our decision easy.
Perhaps the most shocking thing we learned watching the meeting was that, according to a report (not our report, btw), this year's festival traffic resulted in $1.2 million being spent in the city of Charlotte from Thursday through Sunday. We're over here talking about "tens of thousands" over the years, when it's actually MILLIONS of dollars we've brought into the city of Charlotte. Watching the disrespectful way these city officials spoke about the festival, its organizers, and its attendees- knowing the blatant disregard we were treated with by law enforcement during the festival- we cannot and will not continue to give that sort of financial support to a municipality that will not prioritize keeping the people we bring into their city safe. End of story.
And so this is the end of our story in Charlotte.
To those who have supported the festival all these years, making it the monster of an event it is today- THANK YOU. We hope you'll follow us to our new home, which we anticipate being able to share information on soon. You followed us to a new location once, and look how much we grew. Let's do it again!
To our vendors and prospective vendors- 2027 applications are still open on our website. If you've already filled one out, we will reach out when the details from next year are finalized, to see if you'd still like to be considered. We plan to keep the festival in the Greater Lansing Area, same weekend, same hours. Only the address will change.
To the museum that has been our home since 2020- THANK YOU. You've been a pleasure to work with, and if we could take you with us, we would. You deserve so much better than the way you've been treated in all of this.
To the people of Charlotte- So many of you reached out to thank us for making you feel safer in your community. It was our honor to bring an event like this into a small town in big need of some diversity. But the old dude with the long beard on city council did make one good point. He basically pulled a Mean Girls-style, "She doesn't even go here." And he's right, we don't. Charlotte isn't our hometown, it's yours. It's not our job to fix it, it's yours. You should be APPALLED by the way your city officials handled this situation, and by the behavior they are so quick to allow and defend. The festival is moving on, but this fight is yours now. Your local government works for YOU. They can only get away with what you, their constituents, allow. I encourage you all to go watch the video from the 9/14 meeting (festival discussion starts around the 39 minute mark) and decide if these are the people you want representing you.
To those who feel like we're "giving up too easily" or "letting them win." It's understandable to feel that way. But again, this isn't our fight to fight. We have a duty to keep the people who come to our festival safe, and it's been made abundantly clear that the City of Charlotte does not share that same sense of responsibility.
Please stay tuned for information on next year's festival. It's going to be our biggest and best year yet!
