Downtown Belleville festivals will close earlier each night due to security concerns
Organizers of two downtown Belleville festivals have agreed to an earlier closing time after police officers dealt with a “stampede” of about 300 teens who falsely screamed that someone had been shot during Oktoberfest last year.
Oktoberfest and Chili Cook-off will shut down at 10 p.m. on the Friday of their festival weekend and at 9 p.m. on Saturday this year. In previous years, Oktoberfest had closed at 11 p.m. and Chili Cook-off at 10:30 p.m.
In October, Police Chief Matt Eiskant had asked City Council members to require the street festivals to close at 9 p.m. for security reasons. The council instead tabled the issue and asked city officials to meet with festival organizers and downtown shopkeepers.
The new closing times were unanimously approved by the City Council Tuesday night after the festival organizers submitted their requests for street closures.
Eiskant, Mayor Patty Gregory and leaders of the festivals said after the council meeting they were pleased to reach a compromise during talks over the winter.
“We’re satisfied with the agreement we have,” Eiskant said. “We’ll just take it one step at a time and if problems continue, we’ll continue with restrictions.”
Gregory said the city would “revisit” the closing time issue if there are security problems.
“I’m happy with the compromise and hopefully it’s going to work this year,” she said.
Cari Frick, who chairs the Belleville Oktoberfest Committee, and Wendy Pfeil, president and CEO of the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce which hosts the Chili Cook-off, both said they agreed with the compromise.
“We worked together and came up with something that we thought was fair,” Frick said. “We’ll see how things go this year.”
Pfeil said, “We thought this was a fair compromise that everyone agreed to.” The police officers “do a great job in taking care of us,” she added.
Oktoberfest is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15 and 11 a..m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16 this year while Chili Cook-off is slated for 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6 and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7.
Festival security
Eiskant told City Council members last fall that the stampede of teens frightened people at Oktoberfest.
There was no shooting, but a juvenile with a loaded handgun was arrested near the festival grounds by St. Clair County sheriff’s deputies on Saturday, Sept. 17, the second night of the Oktoberfest, Eiskant told members of the Ordinance and Legal Review Committee in October.
The teen had been at the festival before being arrested, he said.
“One establishment had to go on lockdown,” Eiskant told the committee. “Another establishment opened their doors to shelter citizens running from this mob of people. Another business had multiple juveniles running through there screaming somebody had been shot and nobody had been shot.
“It was complete chaos.”
A video of the stampede was shown to City Council members in a closed session.
The Belleville News-Democrat filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the video and the state Attorney’s General’s Office is reviewing the city’s denial of the request.
Eiskant said that there were no security problems at the Chili Cook-off last fall.
Festival supporters and downtown bar and restaurant owners had asked City Council members to let them meet with city officials before making a final decision on the closing hours.
Eiskant was raising a concern that echoed the remarks of former Police Chief Bill Clay.
Clay, who stepped down as police chief last summer and was named director of human resources for the city, told council members in February 2022 that they should require festivals to close at 9 p.m. because of the “planned stampedes” and late-night fights.
That proposal was rejected by an 8-5 vote.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 9:13 AM.
