The biggest event in Harlem is about to make a hardy return.
The Oliver Hardy Festival will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, in downtown Harlem.
The festival was put on hold in 2020 due to COVID. At the time, many festival organizers and event organizers were still trying to get a handle on the pandemic and what was safe to coordinate.
Andrew McMahon, director of the Harlem Museum and Welcome Center, says that the upcoming festival will pick up where it left off when it was last held in 2019.
“The only difference will be widening the spaces between vendors,” said McMahon. “We have the same amount of vendors there, we just made concessions in different areas of town to make sure it works to where we can get all the vendors we’ve had in years past.”
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Over 25,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which will be in its 32nd year. The largest difference, McMahon says, will be the evening concert performed by Ed Turner & Number 9, hosted by the Main Street Treats dessert shop. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
“Our streets will be lined with handcraft vendors celebrating creativity,” said McMahon. “A lot of them have been around for a long time.”
The festival features a parade at 10 a.m., and throughout the day, Laurel and Hardy films will be shown at the Oliver Hardy Museum, where people can see memorabilia dedicated to the stout comic who was born in Harlem in 1892. Stan Laurel was Hardy’s comedic partner. Many Laurel and Hardy lookalikes also attend the event.
Several businesses stay open throughout the festival and enjoy a significant boost in patronage. Even Bubbles or Not, the dive shop on Louisville Street will have a dunking booth.
“It’s just a community staple,” said McMahon. “It’s something that our community gets to look forward to each year. Some people view it as the Master’s of Harlem.”
McMahon observes that the value the festival has for the city of Harlem is not only in its boost for local businesses and the opportunity to showcase the town, though it does those things as well. He emphasizes an importance to celebrate the legacy of Oliver Hardy as a responsibility shared by towns with a link to historical celebrities.
McMahon also notes the particular influence of Laurel and Hardy on of comedy duos over the ages, from Penn and Teller to Key & Peele. The museum acknowledges this with a display highlighting the impact that Laurel and Hardy had on comedy.
“Laurel and Hardy are worth celebrating in the simple fact that they set ground for so many people,” said McMahon. “We’re about 100 years out from when they were first on set together. That’s about the point where it’s the twilight of remembrance for celebrities. It’s our duty just to keep that alive and try to tell the story as long as we can.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering Columbia County with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
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