Mayfest

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Mayfest Is Tulsa (Printable Version , E-mail to a Friend )
City's longtime arts festival reflects vision of longtime arts patrons
by Emily Berman


In 1972 as the Junior League of Tulsa began planning its 50th Anniversary celebration, members took note of a couple other upcoming events: The City of Tulsa was preparing plans for its 75th anniversary and the Tulsa Philharmonic Society, for its 25th.

The three groups joined forces to commemorate these accomplished milestones by co-sponsoring a new, citywide arts festival. The purpose was to bring "performing and visual arts to the people of northeastern Oklahoma."

And so on May 18 1973, "Jubilee '73"--now known as Mayfest, began.

When the 34th Annual Tulsa International Mayfest gets underway in the heart of downtown Tulsa Thursday through Sunday, May 18-21, its history will be palpable as the sights and sounds of art and music resonate throughout the canyon of skyscrapers.

There will be very little looking backward, however, as the festival continues to move forward—having overcome a few years of economic uncertainty—and grow.

But it is a sense of history that provides the continuity for Mayfest, nonetheless, and its legacy of volunteerism.

The Junior League turned Mayfest over to Downtown Tulsa Unlimited and the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa in 1974, these two organizations have shared festival management responsibilities in concert with local sponsors and with the help of arts organizations and hundreds of volunteers.

Anne Darnell Gillingham, Festival Chairman for the past three years, began as a volunteer as a recent college graduate in 1992. It was at the prompting of her mother (also a volunteer) that she got involved.

"I was hooked," she said. "I got to see that volunteering can be really rewarding."
Several of the same volunteers and organizers have been around for 15 years. Everybody knows each other, she said.

"We're kind of a Mayfest family."

Growing Pains

As Mayfest has grown up over the years, the "family" has been divided over its direction of its baby, as this arts festival has morphed from a smallish, fine arts fair to full-blown street festival, for instance, in the early '90s.

Pricey, top tier musical talent and a move into the Brady District for a couple years drew criticism from the old guard and those fearful of taking Mayfest to the "other side of the tracks."

A controversial poster in 2002 by artist Paul Davis created quite a stir amongst more prudish patrons who made a stink over the image of a plump, nude woman draped in a gossamer veil as she romped through a downtown streetscape.

Debate roared at one time among some aficionados on the Mayest board, and their fellow travelers, who denigrated the "artsy and craftsy" elements of some juried, booth artists who hawk wares ranging from carved driftwood to Thomas Kinkade-like prints.

But the Mayfest family feud subsided as factions somehow continue to agree to disagree--and the show goes on.