DEARBORN — A signature event in the city for almost two decades, last week’s announcement of the cancellation of the Arab International Festival for a second consecutive year sparked a mixed community reaction. 

Within hours after the organizer, the American Arab Chamber of Commerce (AACC), confirmed the cancellation, previous collaborators of the event expressed their dismay and concerns over the dire situation on social media.

Established in 1995 as a collaborative effort between ACCESS and the Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC), the festival quickly grew into a world-renowned event that highlighted local Arab American businesses and Middle Eastern culture, drawing thousands of visitors to Dearborn at its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The city, while at first hesitant, was pleased with the economic benefits and increasing positive reception of the event. It became a major financial contributor in later years, donating $10,000 annually and granting permits for organizers to expand the event into a three-day festival over a one-mile stretch of Warren Ave.

Several years after establishing the festival, ACCESS recruited the AACC to help organize the event from a business angle, with a goal to attract more sponsorships and corporate involvement. Major corporations like Ford, Comcast, AT&T and various government agencies, including the CIA, became staples at the festival.

But soon after becoming an avenue to display Middle Eastern culture, the festival slowly started becoming a stomping ground for Christian evangelists to push their beliefs around Muslim Americans. 

The increased presence of these religious groups lead to mounting tensions with local residents in the late 2000s, when the festival started gaining a reputation as a battlefield for religious disputes.

In 2008, Fay Beydoun became the Executive Director of the AACC and organized the festival from that point forward.  It was also around this time when ACCESS stepped down as an official organizer, leaving sole responsibility to the Chamber. 

While never giving official reasons for doing so, many community leaders speculated that ACCESS backed away because the organization didn’t want to bear any liabilities that began emerging at the festival in its later years. 

“ACCESS abandoned the festival,” said Nasser Beydoun, a former Executive Director of the Chamber.  “There was also a clash between the Chamber and the Lebanese Heritage Club, which also negatively impacted it,” he added. 

Nasser, who had organized the festival for eight years, says there were disputes between community leaders over the direction it should take. Towards the latter years, organizers decided to no longer book international Middle Eastern stars because it had become too costly. This component of the festival alone used to lure thousands of tourists into town. 

It was very much apparent that crowds were dwindling during the last few years of the festival, around the same time religious tensions continued to escalate. Nasser believes the Chamber “dropped the ball” in securing a promising future for the event. 

“Removing the international flare that we had at the festival early on, which attracted thousands of people, negatively impacted it.  Basically, in the end, a lot of things came together to kill the event,” Nasser adds.  

The city also apparently began to lose its patience with the festival.  The arrests of members of the Christian evangelist group Acts 17 Apologetics and the aggressive behavior of another group, the Bible Believers, later resulted in civil rights lawsuits that targeted the organizers of the festival, the city and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, who were ushered in to manage security amidst the chaos. 

Last year, Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly drafted an alternate plan for the festival to be moved off the streets of Warren Ave. and into a confined location at Ford Woods Park in an attempt to control the large crowds. Community members speculated that it was the city’s indirect way of saying it would no longer approve a permit on Warren Ave.

Several changes were to be implemented at the Ford Woods location, including charging an entrance fee. However, the city and the AACC were unable to agree to certain terms, and the festival was cancelled one month before it was to be held in June 2013.

The Chamber had stated last year that it needed more time to evaluate a possible new direction and location for the festival, aiming to relaunch it “better and stronger” in 2014. But those talks seemed to never get off the ground. 

Mary Laundroche, the city’s Director of Public Information, says she wasn’t aware of any talks between the Chamber and the city to hold a festival this year.

Laundroche stresses that the city still supports the Chamber, and if the festival was to be relaunched in the future, it would like to evaluate all potential options.

“The city was always in support of the festival. We wanted the organizers and the Chamber to achieve its goals. We would need to see an actual plan to help them be successful in whatever it is they might propose,” Laundroche says. “Any decision regarding the future of the festival is generated by them [the Chamber] and from there, we can gauge what our support would be.”

However, community leaders are raising concerns over the handling of the situation and questioning whether the festival will ever return.

LAHC Founder Ali Jawad, who was heavily involved with the planning of the festival in its earlier years, tells The Arab American News that he believes the Chamber should pass responsibility of the event along to other organizations.  

“The chamber took over the festival after the LAHC and ACCESS made the groundwork, and they just killed it. It’s a shame that we can no longer do a festival here in our city,” Jawad says. “I think we should organize a meeting and come up with a solution. The Chamber failed to continue the event when they were the sole organization behind it. Was it bad leadership or bad management? It’s not for me to say, but someone else should take the lead for the sake of the community.”

Jawad expressed disappointment over the direction the festival had taken in its last few years, stating that organizers sacrificed the quality of the event to make a profit from it.

Business owners along Warren Ave. also grew weary over the presence of the festival, with several of them stating that it had become a burden on their businesses. Jawad adds that Warren Ave’s atmosphere has shifted over the last two decades and changing the location of the festival was long overdue. 

“For them it became about nickel and diming everything. The logistics behind keeping it on Warren Ave. and its benefits in the last five years was just to make money. It no longer became about serving the community,” Jawad added. 

Fay Beydoun tells The Arab American News that she is well aware of the criticsm being directed toward the Chamber, but she states that the festival was suspended due to several factors that still needed to be fleshed out. 

“There were multiple factors that went into the reasoning as to why we didn’t host a festival, and economics was just one of those reasons,” she stated. 

Beydoun adds that the safety of local residents has been a major concern for the Chamber and one of the factors in suspending the event. She adds that they are still in the early phases of planning a relaunch that would aim to make the event more family-friendly. She says her group is open to ideas from community members. 

“The chamber is very much interested in establishing a successful event that highlights Arab culture and local community businesses. Once we have finalized our planning, then we would be more than happy to share those ideas and thoughts with partners and community organizations,” Beydoun adds.  

While it may very well be the end of the festival in the form that was established over the last two decades, past organizers point out that it could be successfully revived. 

In the 1970s, a similarly themed event was held in the South End for several years before organizers pulled the plug on it as well. Jawad points out that this could just be history repeating itself.  

“Maybe it’s time to start a new one that will go on for 10 or 15 years. Hopefully new leaders can come forward with ideas to support an event of this nature in the future. We need a new generation to come in and be creative,” Jawad adds.