Berkley Days festival hit with fights for second year

BERKLEY — The annual Berkley Days festival was marred for the second year in a row due to fights by attendees.

On the third day of the festival, May 11, Berkley Days was shut down early when fights broke out on the event’s grounds.

“Unfortunately, yet again the annual tradition of Berkley Days has been disrupted by fights breaking out amongst participating youth,” a statement from the Berkley Public Safety Department reads.

According to a news release from the city of Berkley, a fight occurred at the festival at around 6:50 p.m. involving several unaccompanied minors. The Public Safety Department, event staff and carnival personnel responded by shutting down games and rides to “manage the situation and ensure the safety of all participants.” One juvenile reportedly was transported to the hospital for minor injuries from the incident.

Large groups of attendees began to exit the festival into the streets, which led to a response from public safety departments in Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, Oak Park, Lathrup Village, Pleasant Ridge, Southfield, Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township to assist in directing them to control points at 11 Mile Road and Coolidge Highway to await transportation and avoid disturbances to surrounding neighborhoods.

During this time, there were two additional juvenile altercations, which were “quickly contained by officers,” according to the city’s news release. In all, three unaccompanied minors from outside Berkley were arrested on charges related to assault and battery.

“We’re very appreciative to our mutual aid partners who came out on Saturday to support us in keeping everyone safe and handling the situation quickly,” Berkley Public Safety Director Matt Koehn said in a prepared statement. “In addition to onsite support from eight of our neighboring police and public safety departments, officers from Beverly Hills were on standby to support our city in the event of police and fire calls. We’re fortunate to have such a strong support system throughout our surrounding communities.”

This is the second consecutive year that fights at Berkley Days led to the event’s early closure. Unlike last year, the city decided to reopen the event for its last day, May 12.

“The safety measures put in place following last year’s event allowed us to manage Saturday’s incident to the best of our ability,” Detective Lt. Andrew Hadfield said in a prepared statement. “Our action plan was informed by a year’s worth of research and planning, following best practices set by surrounding communities. Our officers really stepped up, volunteering for unscheduled overtime this weekend as support was needed to follow our plans and keep the event safe for all to enjoy.”

The festival ran on Sunday with updated rules. The rules stated that participants ages 5-20 had to purchase a wristband in addition to the $3 entry fee and that all minors had to be accompanied by a parent or guardian age 21 or older. In addition, a form of identification was required at the entrance gate, and the festival closed at 4 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. May 12.

The city stated in a news release that at this time no decision has been made about next year’s event.

“On behalf of the City of Berkley, I’d like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to our community for your cooperation, support, and understanding as we do our due diligence to evaluate the appropriate way to move forward next year,” Mayor Bridget Dean said in a prepared statement. “The vast majority of attendees came out to celebrate the start of summer with this time-honored Berkley tradition, and I’m thankful to our public safety officers from within and outside of Berkley and the Berkley Days volunteer committee for acting quickly to keep everyone safe so the event could continue on Sunday.”