A statement posted on social media came as a shock to festival vendors and visitors alike, but, more surprisingly, to officials at the City of Pinson: The Alabama Butterbean Festival was being canceled.
The Clay-Pinson Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of its executive director, Ronnie Dixon, announced that day it would no longer function as a chamber. Instead, it would focus on fundraising for first responders and education.
The annual festival began in 2005. The chamber took control of it in 2011 as the city and festival were both growing.
The questions on the post came quickly and were mostly negative, with many asking "Why?" It was so overwhelming that the comments on the post were turned off.
The chamber claimed that funding to the organization was being cut off; however, that turned out to be an outright lie. The moves followed questions by the new mayors of both Clay and Pinson about the value of their funding. No decisions or votes were made to cut funding when the statement was released.
"Specifically, the city wanted to know more about the chamber's general service contract, not the Butterbean Festival itself," The Trussville Tribune wrote in a story explaining how Pinson Mayor Hoyt Sanders was setting the record straight.
"It is an incorrect statement that we voted to pull funding for the Butterbean Festival," Sanders told the Tribune.
"We had a couple of questions about the general service side," Sanders added. "In my mind, we were working through some things and then were notified about their decision yesterday."
Dixon worked at the City of Clay while also serving as the Executive Director of the Clay-Pinson Chamber. He is also currently serving on the Jefferson County Board of Education. He now works full-time for the City of Leeds.
Trussville Tribune publisher Scott Buttram discussed the situation on both the March 19 and March 25 episodes of "Tribune Unscripted" with his co-host, Brannon Dawkins.
The two explained the abrupt news, with Buttram detailing what he had heard about the situation.
"This is punitive and more personal between some of the parties. I would like to believe none of these people would go down that road. If you're going to dissolve the Chamber, that's a Chamber decision… It's only appropriate that you notify the cities before you announce that decision," Buttram outlined.
The pair noted that while the formal announcement said that the chamber is still using the chamber name, it would no longer be doing the work of a chamber, "which is essentially dissolving the chamber," the co-host said.
The two briefly discussed the news that followed elected officials in both Clay and Pinson, questioning where the money was being spent.
"This takes me back to Robbie Roberts' comments," Buttram said, referring to the previous Pinson mayor.
"It almost makes it sound like the former Chamber, or current Chamber, I don't know how to classify it at the moment, it almost makes it sound like they were holding the Butterbean Festival hostage unless they got funding from the cities to support the Chamber, and if they're not, they are just going to shut it down. They don't want it to continue if they're not involved," he added.
Buttram explained that he hoped something was being lost in translation, but the following week would offer little information to disprove the original theories.
Roberts elaborated on his comments, which were posted on his Facebook.
Statement as follows:
After completing my time as the Mayor of Pinson last November, I have largely stayed away from local politics, but after hearing of the end of the Butterbean Festival my curiosity got the best of me. I decided to try and find out what happened and could the decision perhaps be reversed. Unfortunately, I don’t have much hope for there being an “Alabama Butterbean Festival” this year. I had lengthy conversations with several of the board members today and they all told the same version of events.
1) The Chamber of Commerce owns the Alabama Butterbean Festival and the city cannot use the name or Bucky the mascot nor the web address without gaining permission from the owner. The PHCC group that originally started the Festival legally merged with the chamber and the chamber inherited its assets including the Alabama Butterbean Festival.
2) The Chamber leadership desires to see the legacy of the festival to be of the highest quality and they have concerns that the festival could decline under other management. They want people to remember the festival as the wonderful event that it was for 20 years and not die a slow death towards mediocrity that many festivals suffer over time.
3) The Chamber was asked if they would be willing to do the festival for a flat fee of $10,000 with no connection or guarantee of other Chamber financial support by the city. The Chamber stated that it and the Butterbean Festival are not separable.
4) The Pinson City Council indicated at the February 5th meeting that it would return to consideration of future funding of the Chamber of Commerce. However, no further action had been taken and this was interpreted by the Chamber as a clear signal that future funding was unlikely to be forthcoming.
I had hoped to be able to work as an intermediary between the two parties to perhaps save our wonderful festival, but the situation was more fractured than I expected. Perhaps the city will attempt to host another fall festival, but it doesn’t look like it will be the “Alabama Butterbean Festival.”
Dixon did not respond to questions from the Trussville Tribune or 1819 News.
The City of Pinson held two meetings following the Clay-Pinson Chamber's unexpected announcement. The first one was March 20. At that meeting, the Council unanimously voted to authorize the mayor to take action to save the festival.
In a second episode of "Tribune Unscripted," filmed the day of the special-called meeting on the festival, Buttram confirmed the position that Dixon and the Chamber put the City in.
Reiterating that Pinson-Clay Chamber is no longer really a chamber, the two went on to discuss what was happening with the original festival.
"The folks who control it said no, we're just going to let it die," Buttram said, explaining, "I'm just disappointed that cooler heads didn't prevail, that they're not able to maintain it because 20 years is a long time, it serves no purpose to just drop it and let it die."
He hinted at what was coming next, though.
"Whatever Pinson does, it'll be great. Something good will come out of this," he said before moving on to another segment.
Just hours later, his prediction turned out to be true.
During a special-called meeting on March 26, Heather Lebischak from the North Jefferson Chamber discussed the work her organization has accomplished since its founding on January 5, 2024. She also outlined festivals the organization has hosted or plans to host in other municipalities.
The council responded quickly and decisively, passing two resolutions. One was to establish a standard operating agreement for 2026. The other was to provide the organization with $15,000 to sustain the festival.
The Pinson City Council approved a contract with the North Jefferson Chamber of Commerce to create a new fall event on Main Street for the Pinson Butterbean Days.
The new event already has over 1,000 page likes. The old event had over 10,000 followers.
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