Police provide rundown of Village Fair incidents

The Birmingham Police Department has issued a memorandum to city officials outlining “incidents of significance” related to the annual Village Fair which took place in the downtown area Thursday, May 29, through Sunday, June 1.

The memorandum from the police department on Monday, June 2, was sent to city manager Jana Ecker who then distributed the memo to city commissioners and all city department heads.

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An earlier update was issued in an email late on Friday, May 30, from Birmingham Police Chief Scott Grewe following two major physical altercations at the fair that evening.

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.”

The June 2 memorandum was issued by police captain Greg Wald and contained brief descriptions of a number incidents encountered over the four-day event.

Wald’s memorandum contained a litany of incidents, most not involving physical fights at the annual event. The events noted in the memo ranged from disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, verbal disputes, crowd dispersal and in one case public drug use by a group of teenagers.

The Village Fair in 2024 was the site of one major fight 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.

Problems with large numbers of teenagers are not something unique to the city of Birmingham annual event. A number of similar events in Oakland County and elsewhere have either had to greatly increase police presence or in some communities have been canceled altogether.

Downtown Newsmagazine has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for copies of all police incident reports related to fights at or near the Village Fair for this year. The city has acknowledged receiving the FOIA request and has until next Monday to either supply the requested documents or request an extension provided under the state law.