Georgia’s longest-running festival in Arlington is canceled due to safety concerns; Community members talk impact of May Day

ARLINGTON – Most Arlington residents – current and former – have fond memories of the May Day Festival, dating back to their childhood.

Hugh Cunningham, a 93-year-old Arlington native, remembers being pulled in a wagon by his sister as they enjoyed the parade. Hilary Halford, another Arlington native, used to ride her pony to the parade and dance in the traditional maypole ceremony. Alice Wims, the Arlington Event Committee chair, said it was a time to enjoy good food, wings and ice cream, and sit around with friends and family, from little kids to great grandparents.

The Arlington May Day Festival is the longest-running festival in Georgia. This year would have been its 93rd edition, but the festival was canceled just a week before it was scheduled due to safety concerns.

The Facebook page, “Arlington May Day Festival” posted an announcement on April 23, saying the festival had been canceled. The event would have been Saturday.

“Thank you for all your support in prior years. Hope to see you next year,” the post read.

Arlington Mayor Jerome Brackins said the event was canceled because there were reports from the local law enforcement community of threats of gang activity and gun violence.

“It was definitely a hard decision … we didn’t want to just make a decision in haste,” Brackins said. “We just don’t want to put citizens at risk.”

Arlington Police Chief Jennifer Fairbanks warned the planning committee at a meeting in the week of April 29 of the threats and suggested they cancel the event.

The Albany Herald reached out to Fairbanks to get further information on the threat as well as any ongoing issues with gang activity, but she declined to comment.

Calhoun County Sheriff Josh Hilton said he was not aware of any violent threats that were made, but he had informed Arlington officials that the sheriff’s department would not be present for the parade due to concerns that crowds would be too large for the county’s and city’s small departments to handle.

Hilton said last year he’d heard reports from Blakely and Early County officials that their own festival had grown to chaos with the number of people. That festival was not happening this year, and there were concerns that that would draw larger crowds to Arlington’s event.

Arlington residents are upset about the cancellation. Many posted Facebook comments to express disappointment.

Brandon Winns, an Arlington native and former Calhoun County Coroner, said May Day was homecoming for the city of Arlington – drawing in families and friends who had moved away back into town for the event.

“You could go from one side of town to the other, and the yards were full because everybody who has grown up in Arlington knows that was the one time of year everybody was going to be home,” he said.

Now, family members are canceling their trips home.

Georgia’s Longest Running Festival

The first Arlington May Day Festival took place in May 1932.

Turner Bostwick’s mother was one of the original organizers. Bostwick called her a visionary. She and a group of women called the "Camp Fire Girls" put on the festival for many years.

The 83-year-old has lived in Arlington his entire life. He said May Day was the one event a year, aside from church revivals, that Arlington’s citizens could take pride in.

“It was a wonderful community festival,” he said. “All of the churches, both black and white, were involved. Everyone was involved.”

A slogan on a 1962 May Day flyer read that it was an event "where everybody counts."

Bostwick said it would draw in the bands and Homecoming courts from area high schools. People would set up shops and crafts for children along the main street. He said it was a big deal for the people who lived in the tiny community.

When May Day originally began, black residents were not allowed to attend the event, Winns said. He said they would gather at the gym at the end of the parade to glimpse some parts of the festivities.

That began to change in the 1970s, '80s and '90s when black Arlington residents began to feel comfortable at the event. Arlington’s first black May Queen was chosen in the early 2000s.

In 2007, Winns said, the original May Day organizers backed out of putting on the event. A group, including Winns and Wims, formed a committee to save the festival.

Soon, the committee was hosting an ample amount of food vendors, musicians, events for children and guest speakers at the festival. People got together to grill and show off their cars. Generations of families attended.

Winns said the event grew beyond peoples’ expectations after 2007. There were so many people attending, he said, you couldn’t even turn around.

Over time, he said May Day grew to be very important for Arlington’s black residents. Arlington’s population is 78% African American, according to the World Population Review. Winns said it was not intentional, but May Day became a big event for the black community. He said fewer white residents attend the festivities.

"It's really the only black event in the area, and it's been canceled," Winns said.

Differing opinions on safety concerns

Winns said he believes there were no real threats of gun violence at May Day at all. He said despite some instances of a rowdier, younger crowd, May Day was carefully planned by the committee and had a hold on any potentially dangerous situations.

“We’ve had rough years, but anything we’ve had to face in the past, we’ve made it through, and we’ve done it in a way that I think we could have handled anything,” Winns said.

Winns said he believes Arlington’s police chief failed to properly plan for the event. He said she was never present at committee meetings, something the former police chief did on a regular basis.

Bostwick later wrote in a text to The Albany Herald that when he found out May Day had been canceled this year, he reached out to Calhoun County Commission Chairman Conner Collins, who contacted the governor’s office and secured assurance that both the Georgia State Patrol and GBI would have a presence at the festival.

Bostwick wrote that he informed Arlington’s mayor via text 10 days before the scheduled festival, yet never heard back.

Winns said the police chief had mentioned at the second-to-last committee meeting potential GBI involvement in the violent threats. However, in an email to The Albany Herald, the GBI confirmed that it had no ongoing investigations of the sort in Arlington.

Bostwick said he believes the event and Arlington as a whole have changed over the years. He said there are activities that go on at May Day that are not family friendly.

“The festival, in my eyes, has deteriorated year by year,” he said. “Today, it just breaks your heart if you’re one of the descendants, like I am, to see what it has evolved into.”

However, Bostwick said, it’s not just a May Day issue but a deep-rooted city issue.

“May Day is just one of the victims,” he said.

Bostwick said the current city administration has let the festival fall apart. He also said the current police department is inept in its day-to-day routine and that the police chief lacks care for growing safety concerns around the community. He said he’s raised safety concerns at past City Council meetings but didn’t receive comforting responses.

He said he hopes May Day can go back to what it once was, but it would take new leadership.

“We need someone who cares enough and loves the community enough to enforce the law and wants what's best for the community,” Bostwick said.

A bright spot for Arlington residents

Wims said the event committee is going to keep the May Queen tradition alive this year.

“The city has been crowning a queen for 93 years,” she said. “Most of the girls, they’ve wanted to be May Queen since they were little. It’s an honor.”

The May Queen is chosen after submitting an essay and getting interviewed by a panel of judges made up of Arlington residents and some county courthouse staff.

The queen must have a 2.5 GPA, live within Arlington’s zip code and is often a junior or senior in high school.

Khanijan Mitchell, a high school senior, is this year’s queen.

Wims said it’s sad there is no longer a festival for this year’s May Queen. She said the committee knew it still had to give her the crowning ceremony. The committee decided Thursday to hold the ceremony at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Arlington Depot.

Last year’s queen will crown Mitchell, and Wims said she hopes to still have girls perform the traditional Maypole dance.