Physical fights at Village Fair Friday evening

The annual Village Fair in Birmingham on Friday evening, May 30, ran into problems with two physical altercations between teenagers, and five teenagers, two boys and three girls, were taken into custody and another girl was taken to a local hospital.

There were no problems on Thursday or Saturday at the four-day event that ends this evening.

The Village Fair in 2024 was the site of one major fight, once again among teenagers, that drew the attention of city officials who asked this year for the event sponsors to consider its hours of operation.

In past years the annual Village Fair, hosted by the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce, ran as late as 11 p.m. Officials from the Chamber of Commerce, the company which owns the fair and city public safety officials cut back on hours of operation this year and devised a system involving officials assessing each evening if the fair could stay open past the 9 p.m. closing time. On Thursday evening the Village Fair was allowed to remain open until 11 p.m. but on Friday and Saturday evening, Chamber of Commerce and fair company officials recommended early in the evening that the event close at 9 p.m., according to Joe Bauman, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Although Birmingham Police Chief Scott Grewe was not available Sunday morning, email correspondence he sent to city officials late Friday evening outlined problems encountered at the fair that night.

According the Grewe’s email update to city officials, “Just prior to 9 p.m. an assault occurred and two juveniles were taken into custody. Shortly after closing a large mob like crowd formed on Henrietta and eventually spilled into the roadway on Maple blocking all traffic. A large volume of juveniles blocked several sidewalks in town for the next 30 to 45 minutes.”

The police chief’s update also noted that “a second assault occurred, this time involving four females at the corner of Old Woodward and Merrill. Three of the females were taken into custody and one was transported to the hospital.”

Grewe’s correspondence noted that command officers were making some changes for Saturday to prevent a of repeat of the problems encountered Friday evening.

Bauman on Sunday morning said that the changes made were “outstanding” and even though the Friday incidents were “disappointing,” the police department should be given a “tremendous amount of credit” for a more orderly closing of the fair on Saturday evening,

Downtown Newsmagazine on Sunday morning filed a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of all police incident reports related to fights at or near the Village Fair.