After violence and juvenile arrests, can O’Fallon’s City Fest continue?
The future of O’Fallon’s City Fest is in question after a weekend marked by disturbances that resulted in 17 juvenile arrests for battery and disorderly conduct at or near Community Park on Friday and Saturday.
“This year’s City Fest has shown that nostalgia for how events were once held cannot outweigh the responsibility of keeping our community safe. Public safety must always come first, and moving forward, every festival or gathering will be planned with that priority at the forefront,” Mayor Eric Van Hook said Monday.
Describing the volume and frequency of disturbances as “severe,” Van Hook said there were at least nine separate fights on festival grounds and at nearby businesses.
A charge is pending in the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office related to shots fired near Community Financial Advisors, 800 S. Lincoln Ave., at 7:53 p.m. Saturday. Five juveniles, ages 12 to 15 and all from out of town, were apprehended nearby on Wellesley.
Police Chief Kirk Brueggeman said the shooter was a 14-year-old from Cahokia Heights. The others — from Belleville, Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis — were released without charges.
“A thorough after-action review is underway by our public safety team to evaluate contributing factors, interagency coordination and potential operational and policy improvements for future events,” said Van Hook, who is Brueggeman’s predecessor as chief of police. “Upon completion of this review, the city will schedule a meeting with stakeholders to go over the findings.”
City Fest Chair Marcie Lapolice said she and other event planners look forward to meeting with the mayor after the review of incident reports, photographs and video footage.
Lapolice and city officials have been in discussions with Van Hook and Brueggeman since Saturday. While no firm decisions have been made, Lapolice said it is doubtful the festival will continue in its current form.
“We want to see what they say and go from there. City Fest will probably not continue, although it hasn’t been talked about and nothing’s been decided,” she said. “Maybe we can come up with another option and find some solutions.”
Brueggeman said authorities continue to gather information.
“We are reviewing things in house now, but it may take a few weeks for us to get everything together for the mayor,” he said.
On Friday, a near-fight about 5 p.m. and a fight before 6:30 p.m. near the ride area resulted in seven arrests for battery and disorderly conduct. The juveniles were ages 15 to 18, with three from O’Fallon and four from Belleville.
A rapid series of fights and disturbances between 6:47 and 7:33 p.m. Saturday resulted in more arrests. Those involved were ages 15 to 17; three listed Belleville as their residence, and two listed East St. Louis. These incidents occurred in and around the park, east of the tennis courts and along the U.S. 50 corridor.
Pepper spray and pepper balls were deployed in limited instances, Brueggeman said.
Because of the fights and disruptive behavior, multiple businesses along U.S. 50 near the park — including Starbucks, McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Dairy Queen, Domino’s and Phillips 66 — closed until the crowds dispersed.
That stretch of U.S. 50 at Hilgard and Lincoln was temporarily closed. City Fest shut down rides and music on the grounds, and police instructed unaccompanied juveniles to leave while working to regain control of the crowd.
O’Fallon police, fire and EMS were supported by departments from Belleville, Fairview Heights and Shiloh, as well as the Illinois State Police and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department.
“I want to thank all the surrounding agencies that sent support to O’Fallon in response to our request for mutual aid,” Van Hook said.
Brueggeman said two officers sustained minor, non-life-threatening injuries during the response: one with a knee injury, and another with eye irritation from pepper spray.
The park was cleared by 9 p.m. Saturday, Van Hook said. The plan was to shut down at 8 p.m. that evening. The event closed at 10 p.m. Friday as scheduled.
Police and the City Fest committee had increased security this year — reducing Saturday’s hours, installing extra lighting, bolstering the police presence, and using drones for surveillance.
After disturbances at other local festivals — including disruptive behavior that led to arrests and the permanent cancellation of St. Nicholas Church’s annual NickFest in May, and skirmishes on the Saturday of last year’s City Fest — new security plans were implemented.
Lapolice, a nine-year festival organizer and longtime community volunteer, said things had been going smoothly until the Saturday night fights.
“Honestly, we couldn’t have had better weather. We had a small disturbance Friday, and the police handled it right away. On Saturday, the parade line was packed with people, and I felt like there were more people than ever,” she said.
The parade, themed “Nursery Rhymes,” had 65 participating groups and floats.
“I was walking the grounds and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Then there was a swarm of kids and things got crazy. I feel it was a planned rampage; that people were targeted,” she said.
Lapolice said she communicated with Brueggeman throughout the evening. After the fights, they worked to escort those 18 and younger out of the park.
“The police did a really good job. They were on top of it,” she said.
Lapolice said she was disappointed for the vendors, bands, ride company and local volunteer groups who worked hard to restore the event.
“They work really hard. We’ve worked with this ride company for seven years. We had to shut everything down, so it affected all of them,” she said.
The homecoming event returned in 2018, giving local nonprofits, schools, churches and businesses a chance to raise funds. Lapolice said attendance over the two-day event was typically about 21,000.
Brueggeman said the biggest issue has been unsupervised youths.
“It’s mainly 13- to 20-year-olds who show up and cause trouble with each other. They don’t necessarily involve others in the crowd, but it puts a cloud over the event,” he said.
That proved true again this year. Larger park gatherings have seen disturbances, while O’Fallon’s smaller events — such as Downtown District Summer Nights, Vine Street Market, Independence Day fireworks, Bacon Fest, Witches and Wizards Night Out, Veterans Day Parade, Holiday Illuminated Parade, and Halloween festivities — have gone smoothly, according to Brueggeman.
Other Disturbances
Brueggeman noted that similar issues have affected towns throughout the metro-east, the state and Missouri.
In May, police responded to NickFest at St. Nicholas Church in O’Fallon for fights that spilled into the neighborhood late at night.
Last summer, City Fest was moved to Family Sports Park due to park construction, but police closed the event an hour early Saturday because of fighting among juveniles and a stampede.
Midwest WingFest in Fairview Heights was canceled after fights and people attempted to illegally enter the St. Clair Square venue last August. Two people were arrested, and others were pepper-sprayed.
Belleville’s Oktoberfest ended early last year as more than 100 juveniles became unruly. In 2022, about 300 teenagers caused a stampede through the festival after a false report of a shooting; however, a juvenile with a loaded handgun was arrested near the grounds.
At last year’s Shiloh picnic, some juveniles were turned away because they refused bag searches. Shiloh police later found bags with guns outside the grounds. Fights broke out again at the picnic in 2023. The Shiloh Homecoming will be held Sept. 5-6, and organizers plan to close at 6 p.m. both nights.