A decade ago, I wanted to use my talents to contribute to the culture of my hometown, O’Fallon, IL. Already ride or die for the maker movement, I created Strange Folk Festival independently, before presenting it at an O'Fallon Arts Commission meeting.

They had omitted an event called Art in the Park from their line-up. It was a small affair in Community Park where a handful artists set up to do projects with children. Nothing was sold there. I was one of those artists the last year they did it, and loved teaching art to kids. So I agreed to keep doing so in the form of recreational classes, when the O’Fallon Parks Dept. asked me to. This was how I got involved with the Arts Commission. Craft show organizers in other areas had luck securing their venues by networking within their municipality.

I did not ask for funding, as I already had commitments from many crafters to vend and was modeling the event like other indie craft shows - keeping costs low by taking on most of the tasks myself. How the name came about is well documented (words from a song by Gorillaz), as is the extent of work that I do as the sole owner and administrator of all of the festival’s intellectual property, planning documentation, correspondence, web development, social media, operating budget, advertising, talent acquisition, exhibit fabrication, volunteer coordination, merchandise design, and logistics planning.

While discussing services the city could provide, I mentioned that I wanted to accept credit cards for vendor fees but was weary of PayPal. This is when the Parks Dept. offered to manage finances, and so they did, for fees that were charged annually to Strange Folk’s allocated budget. I was granted access to those funds with a city Visa card, and could fax invoices out of the Parks office. Revenue/Expense reports were emailed to me a few months after the festival every year.

Even though I had nearly 200 vendors paying much higher fees in the last few years, I was still only being issued $1500 or less annually of what was “leftover” in the budget to compensate for my year-round labor that it took to put on my show. The inconsistencies between the parks office reports and my budget widened.

In 2014, I raised fees enough to guarantee $5,000 as a personal stipend. Still not an amount to be considered anything close to a salary, and again, I wasn’t asking for compensation from the city. I was told they would have to “put me in the system” to receive this money, and I signed a boilerplate contract for direct deposits that had nothing to do with the fest’s intellectual property.

Then I cut more costs at my personal expense because I needed better equipment to handle the development and graphic design load. A string of my bottom-rung personal computers died slow heat deaths over the years crunching 40ft wide vector billboard files and full-page print ads out of bare-bones Linux installations, with only open source graphics software. I informed the Parks Director that I was purchasing a $1700 MacBook Pro with the Visa they had issued me and drove to Microcenter that afternoon. I even got it on sale. This machine has only been in my possession, until recently.

Strange Folk Festival’s total expenses did not exceed $28,000 in 2014, including my cut, the laptop, all Parks Dept. administrative and maintenance fees, and the salaries of the grounds crew for the weekend. A city employee finally admitted that they had always actively pursued making a profit from Strange Folk. They most certainly did that year, with over $31,000 in revenue from vendor fees alone.

This was not part of our initial agreement, but I’m chalking it up to being young and financially naive. I knew the whole time, at least, not to delegate any tasks or sign anything that would dilute my ownership of Strange Folk’s brand. O'Fallon did not act outside the services that any venue might offer. I was not their employee, but it was my hard work that filled their hotels and brought an estimated 20,000-40,000 people into town annually. I did it without compensation because people loved it so much, and I loved creating it.

That’s why when I announced at the January 2015 Arts Commission meeting that Strange Folk Festival would be ending it’s run. I had nothing negative to say about our arrangements. I just couldn’t afford to do it under these circumstances anymore. Their facilities were no longer adequate, and their services to process vendor fees no longer needed.

“You know, you …CAN’T do it without me.” I remember trying to invoke only kindness and gratitude during this discussion. I suggested they move a new beer festival up to the weekend and even offered to give them some branding and social media pointers. O'Fallon can hold any kind of festival they like the last weekend of September; they just can’t call it Strange Folk.

I left feeling so excited about having a whole year to concentrate on my craft supply shop, The Upcycle Exchange, and other projects I had been dreaming up. I thought it best, and still do, that I give the gnome a rest, and work on moving Strange Folk to a location that is accessible and inspiring to me, I will help my gnome find his new home, but we’re going to have some adventures first. I figured when it warmed up, myself and a merry band of lumbersexuals in a box truck would collect what is left of Fort Featherbottom, and that would conclude my relationship with the O'Fallon Parks Dept.

A few weeks later, the emails, texts, and phone calls from the Parks Dept. began, insisting I hand over my personal account passwords, asking me to come show them,“how to do Facebook ads.” I discovered that a Parks employee had purchased the .org version of my domain on Go Daddy. The Arts Commission January Meeting Minutes even left out my announcement.

Honestly, I think the Go Daddy part was what pushed me over the edge. The formidable St. Louis Craft Mafia crowd-funded my trademark application within hours of me telling some of my friends what was going on. I sent the office a cease and desist. The city lawyer sent a short letter that said, “as a former employee ,” I was to turn over my “website and Facebook passwords” along with my laptop and $50. I sent another cease and desist, this time trying to explain why they were in the wrong.

Not long after that, I got a call from the O'Fallon PD.

Parks dept. staff had reported my MacBook stolen. However, because the only evidence the staff had was a credit card receipt with my signature, the police would not seize it as stolen property. I have cooperated fully with them, signing over said Macbook into an evidence locker, and was given a Receipt of Property pending civil litigation. Still, I did not go public about any of it. The O'Fallon Parks Dept. simply cannot do Strange Folk without me, so every action they take looks foolish.

Then, what is this blowing up every device on my person Friday, April 24th? An email that O'Fallon sent to last year’s vendors. Keep in mind, they were only granted access to vendor emails for the purpose of payment processing. All 400+ annual applicant emails are still in my possession.

Notice on the photo above that the event is spelled “Strangefolk” in the subject line

Also notice Michelle Volansky’s 2014 illustration, which was used and altered without permission. The hand-drawn “2014” on the original is obstructed by a grey blob, and poorly executed typography. As graphic designers, neither I or Michelle (A.K.A. Creature Type) would ever permit unskilled individuals to execute changes to our artwork or trademarked brands. An ongoing contractual agreement for use of her artwork is between the two of us.

Due to this blatant copyright infringement, out went the 3rd cease and desist, along with the wrath of my loyal, and now outraged, following.

City Hall, make them drop it. Admit your parks dept. doesn’t know what it’s doing. Give me my laptop back, and let’s call it a day.Thousands of people visited O'Fallon over as a direct result of my creativity. Besides that, through the naughts, I taught hundreds of resident children to draw in low-cost art workshops. I did not want to scorch the Earth in this way and hold no animosity towards anyone. I think the offending parties are just confused. They are not stopping though, and I am not backing down.

I am making this nuisance public at the behest of my vendors, friends, and fans. I just want them to know that I did not decide to move Strange Folk for wealth; I disrupted it to save my own worth. I don’t need that laptop or restitution to continue my work. I just want to keep making things, and I’ll bring my whimsical daydreams to life from nothing, if I have to. My creativity is pivoting to be more business-minded now, so I look forward to what I can make with more resources at my disposal. I’m glad that ethical manners of doing so are on the horizon.

In conclusion, to my hometown of O'Fallon, IL:

I have been in and out of Community Park my entire life. From plunging into Memorial Pool as a toddler to making clover chain jewelry in right field during Boosters T-Ball. Lisbeth Brown taught me posture and grace at Dancestation when it was still in Gia’s building, across from the Clark Station. That place honored the “Get a free Tootsie-Pop when there is an Indian on your wrapper” legend. I rode my bike there almost daily, and built my first Fort Featherbottom in the mossy valley where the lakes drain off behind North Vine St.

Many of my friends were military and moved away, but I never wanted to. When I did, and then came back a number of years later, things had changed. No Homecoming or Mayfest? It got my engine started. I can’t help but think of the Mayfest now, and remember it’s “gypsy rain curse,” a suburban legend I heard retold year after year growing up. It sounded pretty silly, but I did watch the weather forecast with interest.

Now I make it rain curse word-laden emails for my vendors all summer long, and they love it. I love them, and I love you too. Thank you for being so accommodating to my Strange Folk and I.

I take parts of you with me everywhere, and in every way that I create.

Yours Truly,

Autumn Wiggins

Strange Girl STILL in Charge

ADDENDUM: 04/30/15

Because I just got another letter full of more demands and outlandish accusations, I would like to add that:



1. The Visa card I was issued to spend allocated vendor funds was returned to the Parks Dept. promptly after Strange Folk Festival 2014, as it has been every year. Along with every last receipt, every year. All purchases were reviewed and reconciled by the City of O’Fallon annually, including 2014. Due to my inexperience with handling large sums of money, I felt having this accountability was an advantage to taking up their offer to manage the finances for Strange Folk when I started it. I have always spent funds responsibly, and followed all the rules they gave me. Everything was accounted for in my operating budget, and I’ve heard nothing but praise when the books are closed every year until now.





2. I am, for the first time, told the city has spent $87,000 over the last decade to “grow and broaden the festival.” Strange Folk Festival grew and expanded because of my independent operation of it’s branding, marketing campaigns, social media and personal choice in vendor aesthetics. All Strange Folk Festival vendors, bands, and other participants were reviewed and chosen by me alone every year. I picked every song on the playlist. I directed my vendors to send their fees to the city for processing, and these non-public funds made up the entire operating budget, as the Parks Dept. expense reports show. Volunteers were recruited by me, and only received emails from me. This is all easily verifiable.





3. Vendor fees would be the only funds needed to run the festival, at any number of venues. There is precedence to this, when you analyse how indie craft shows around the country operate.





4.Strange’ Folk’s website has been hosted on my personal web server, that I payed out of pocket for, since it’s inception.



5. There are no false rumors about the Park’s Dept. public activity. Their disrespectful behavior towards artists was made public when they emailed Strange Folk vendors artwork that they had ripped off Facebook and altered. The artist herself being one of them.

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