HARLEM – Hurricane Ian passed by the area leaving the weather cool and the skies blue – perfect conditions for Saturday’s 33rd annual Oliver Hardy Festival. Locals as well as patrons from different states and even other countries comprised the large crowds.
Oliver Hardy fans, Greg and Linda Thomas traveled from Virginia for their first festival and said they were excited to be able to attend.
“We didn’t know about it until around two months ago,” Greg Thomas said. “Oliver Hardy is such a joyous person, and the festival is about just fun and joy.”
While there was no look-alike contest this year, the couple still dressed up in their Laurel and Hardy costumes.
“Since we dressed up in the costume last year on Halloween, we thought coming in costume here would be fun,” Greg Thomas said.
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After attending the event for the first time this year and dressing up, the couple said the city invited them to come back next year.
According Linda Caldwell, the former director of the Laurel and Hardy Museum, every year, people from across the country and other nations come to Harlem for the event.
“There was a gentleman here earlier from Homberg, Germany who came strictly just for the festival,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell has worked the Oliver Hardy Festival ever since it began in 1989. She said the event has grown every year and is estimated to have had up to 35,000 people this year.
The festival has not only grown in the amount of people, but also in the number of vendors involved.
“When we first started, we had about 30 vendors, and we placed them about a block apart just to make it look like it was a lot of people. After that, it just started building,” Caldwell said.
This year’s Oliver Hardy Festival was filled with vendors, food trucks, the annual parade plus entertainment including Revival Wrestling. Patrons could stop and watch different matches.
Trinyella, a business that sells designs for kitchen accessories based in Evans, was one of the small local vendors that attended the event. Lori Eichlin of Trinyella said she is very appreciative of these types of events that help out small, local businesses.
“It supports local and small business, so that is a very big plus as far as I’m concerned when they have festivals and things like this,” said Eichlin.
Patrons also filled the Harlem’s Laurel and Hardy Museum. The museum showcases the history of the city of Harlem as well as educates visitors about the life of Oliver Hardy, who was born in Harlem in 1892, and how he met Stan Laurel.
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Meghan Foster, director of Harlem’s Laurel and Hardy Museum, expressed the importance of the event and for people coming to see the history of Harlem, Laurel and Hardy.
“It’s very important, especially when it comes to Laurel and Hardy, because people may not realize, but a lot of TV shows and movies were influenced by them,” Foster said.
Outside the museum, donations were being made for the new Laurel and Hardy statue. The bronze full-sized statue of Laurel and Hardy is expected to be placed outside next to the museum and be finished by next year.
Chris Rickerson is a staff reporter covering Columbia County government and general assignment topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at chris@theaugustapress.com.
