09/08/2026
Wherever FOO ends up you can bet my "heathen" butt will be there showin' or goin'!
Spooky Pride Forever🖤🏳️🌈
Okay. Let's talk about it. When I made the decision to move the festival to Charlotte, I did so with more than a bit of trepidation. Being from Lansing, Charlotte has always had a certain...reputation. And I wasn't sure it was the right fit for this type of event. But I love the museum and have complete faith in the museum staff, so I trusted that it would work, and it did. Actually, I found the City of Charlotte a delight to deal with compared to the City of Lansing, administration-wise, and felt much more welcomed.
In 2024, a culty little religious zealot by the name of Jonathan Potter (who owns PotterVilla Applied Technology, which operates out of the old sheriff's residence on the courthouse property) showed up with his family and some goofy little posterboard signs to "protest." I actually thought it was funny. Until I found out that they were using popsicles to lure children over to them and tell them their parents were leading them on a path to hell. That they were loitering outside the bounce castle, and when kids would come down the slide, they would try to corner them and "preach" to them. Iiiiii'm sorry- WHO are the child predators?!
Last year they came back, with their same silly little signs covered in bad handwriting (posterboard is like fifty cents my guy, at least put some effort into it). Instead of popsicles, they employed the tried and true child predator tactic of using a literal PUPPY to lure children over to them.
Here's something to know about Jonathan- he's a whiny little weasel with zero backbone. He got tired of everyone laughing at him and his weird clothes and his weird wife and his ugly signs. So this year, he brought in "professional" paid agitators, a group of white nationalist terrorists from Mississippi, to disrupt the festival in ways he was too chicken to do himself. Whether he paid them to come or not, I don't know. But he brought them here. Literal terrorists. (Would be such a shame if his business folded and he no longer had the means to hire terrorists to assault children, wouldn't it?)
Megaphone Man, or Temu Brand Jake Lang as we've taken to calling him, is Gabriel Olivier from Jackson, Mississippi. Gabriel is so insufferable, even his own eyebrows abandoned him. He says a lot of words, but has no idea what he's talking about. Even the leader of the Mormon Church adjacent to the museum stopped his service yesterday to come out and get into it with Gabriel and his people. When the Mormons are defending an oddities festival over a self-proclaimed "evangelist," you know you've gone too far.
Before you make yourself look REAL dumb, this is NOT a freedom of speech issue. Screaming into people's, CHILDREN'S, faces with a megaphone is not protected by the first amendment. It is assault. Grabbing a child's arm and telling them their parents are leading them on the path to hell is not free speech, it is assault. Standing in front of a vendor's booth for long stretches of time and ranting into your megaphone that they are a witch who deserves to be burned, that Salem got it right, preventing people from entering said booth to shop, is impeding business and it's illegal. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk so that people can't get by, refusing to move, is impeding traffic and business, and that's also illegal. Screaming through a megaphone at a Muslim woman that she deserves to be bombed, yelling at an in*******al couple that they are disgusting and going to hell, following members of the transgender community around with a megaphone in their face talking about how they're going to wind up killing themselves, getting in kids faces and shouting about how their parents want them to be school shooters IS NOT PROTECTED BEHAVIOR. And yet the Charlotte Police Department protected it. For hours. It is hate speech. Harrassment. Disturbing the peace. Gabriel Olivier, Coleman Boyd (his cohort from Mississippi), Jonathan Potter- these are not "good, God-Fearing men." They are insecure, ignorant bigots. They are hateful, insignificant tools. And if your first instinct, after reading all of this, is to defend them in any way- you're just as bad.
When this all first started Saturday, museum staff called the police right away. They came. Had a quick little chat with Gabriel and his crew. Told us they weren't breaking any laws. Then left. For some reason, the Charlotte Police Department decided to run on limited staff this weekend, even though they knew thousands of people would be pouring into downtown for the festival. While that is a testament to the fact that they knew we "heathens" weren't going to cause any trouble, it still seems incredibly irresponsible.
As things continued to escalate throughout the day, the police were called several times, and just kept saying the same thing- that the b**b crew wasn't doing anything wrong. I finally called them myself just before 2pm, and encountered a very annoyed dispatcher who said, "They've already been there several times today, and they TOLD you they're not doing anything wrong." Essentially, "stop calling us." But I pushed back. I wanted someone to explain to me how screaming into someone's face with a megaphone is legal. How saying the vile things they were saying is legal. I was told an officer would call me, and one did. So I asked him all of those questions, told him we had hours worth of footage of this behavior, and multiple photos of them crossing onto the courthouse lawn, which is tresspassing. We banned them from the museum property as soon as we saw them, but they were allowed to be in the street and on the outer sidewalk. They weren't allowed, however, BY DEFINITION OF CHARLOTTE'S OWN ORDINANCES AND LAWS, to scream into people's faces with megaphones, impede business, or impede traffic. Yet the police kept letting them do it. And that is why I say what I'm about to say next.
I don't know that A Festival of Oddities will continue in Charlotte. Not because I'm afraid of those angry little over-boiled men, but because the Charlotte Police Department chose to ignore their own ordinances and laws and protect the "rights" of white nationalist terrorists over the safety of thousands of families. That is unacceptable. I feel an immense sense of responsibility for the safety of every single person that attends the festival, and if the local police department is going to be the very ones placing that safety in jeopardy, I cannot continue to bring thousands of tourists into town for the festival every year. I couldn't care less about the appearance of "letting them win." This isn't a game to me. This is about the safety and well-being of thousands of people, and the integrity of an event I have put my all into for nearly a decade.
The City of Charlotte, Michigan is really in a moment, here. They can either choose to stand up for what's right and speak out against literal terrorists, declare publicly that these people and this hate has no place in their community, and then back their words up with actions. Or they can fortify the sterotype that they've lived under for decades- that Charlotte is not a safe place for anyone who's not white, straight, and "god-fearing."
Some hopeful news- when I arrived at the festival Sunday morning, a member of city council was there waiting to talk to me. He gave me his direct number so that I could reach out if the terrorists came back yesterday. (They were there early, but the Mormons ran them off before the festival started and they didn't return.) We will have a meeting with city council, the mayor, and the police chief this week to see if there is a path forward. If anyone has a firsthand account that they would like included in the evidence we present at this meeting, please send it to [email protected] with specific details and your contact info.
Some good news- I heard the festival referred to as "Spooky Pride" for the first time this weekend, and I can't tell you how much I love that. Consider this our unofficial trademark claim. If anyone else uses the term, we'll send them one of those cease-and-desists that have become so popular. I also received some feedback on what it means to marginalized communities to have a festival like this in a town that is infamous for its intolerance of marginalized communities. The best way to show people who don't feel safe or supported in the small town they wound up in by chance that there is a bigger, more accepting world out there is to bring that world to them. And as long as we can do it safely, we will continue to do so for years to come.
Final request- would one of our very talented artists care to turn this sign the b**b crew brought into something hilarious? I feel like it has so much potential.
📷: Coleman Boyd, convicted felon from Mississippi, invited to town by local businessman Jonathan Potter of PotterVilla Applied Technology.
