Five years later, May Fair Arts returns with new locale
May 19—Norman's May Fair is making a comeback.
After shutting down the festival in 2019, Assistance League of Norman has teamed up with the Campus Corner Merchants Association to bring the arts festival to Campus Corner today and Sunday.
Rebecca Gillum, May Fair chairperson, said there was a good plan in place to bring the festival back after a five year break.
"We were contacted by Campus Corner Merchants Association, and they talked a good game, so we decided, well, let's see what happens and so far we've got a pretty good response," she told The Transcript. "This is kind of a test to see if it's well received and if it's something the community might be ready to have back."
The festival was a Norman staple for more than 45 years and called Andrews Park home before the Assistance League saw a changing community landscape and decided to focus their efforts in other places, like their Operation School Bell program, Gillum said.
"A major factor was recognition. We put this on for over forty years and nobody in Norman knew it was us doing it," she said. "And then there is the funding issue. It cost us quite a bit of money to put that on, so we finally reached the point where we thought we could use the money in a better way and put it back into our programs like Operation School Bell and help more children."
The Assistance League of Norman's Operation School Bell program provides new clothing such as jeans, tops, underwear and coats in a retail-like environment to students from Norman and Little Axe school districts in kindergarten through twelfth grade.
After being approached by the merchants association, assistance league officials changed course and decided to bring back the arts festival, this time in a new location.
"They were having a Campus Corner Association meeting and trying to find ways to bring people down to Campus Corner after all of the students have gone home," Gillum said. "They were trying to find an event or something that might attract people back down to Campus Corner at a time when they otherwise might not think about it.
"So they approached us and we had a really long conversation and when it came down to it, they looked at me and said what would you think about bringing it back."
Campus Corner Association Executive Director Carrie Hendricks was among those able to convince Gillum to make the change.
Hendricks said her love for May Fair was one of the reason she brought up the idea.
"May Fair was always one of those events that a lot of us like to attend every year," she said. "So we thought about it and said 'why can't we bring it to Campus Corner and bring more family events back to Campus Corner' and it went from there."
The two-day event will include 30 merchandisers with exhibits from local artists and crafters, a children's art contest and many other activities for the family.
Buchanan Avenue will closed to vehicles, and Campus Corner parking meters will be free to use during the festival.
The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
