Time Sensitive Note from the Arts Commission Advisory Board
Denise Duffy
Dear County Commissioners:
I recognize the challenges the County is facing due to recent weather events and the County Manager’s absence. However, as Chair of the Arts Commission Advisory Board, I feel compelled to bring forward a rare and time-sensitive opportunity with significant cultural and economic upside for Orange County.
On July 4th, 2026, our nation will celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence. Orange County played a pivotal role in our nation’s founding as the final home of William Hooper, one of North Carolina’s three signers of the declaration.
The OCAC feels this will be an important day for families and our arts community to come together in celebration, and a unique opportunity to launch a new, annual 4th of July event.
The Festival for the Eno, a cornerstone of the Triangle’s 4th of July celebrations for decades, has been cancelled. Its absence will leave many Orange County families without a meaningful local, arts activity to celebrate. This creates an opening for Orange County to step in—capturing that audience, supporting local artists, and generating economic activity for our businesses. Orange County’s new festival would also positively impact dozens of local visual and performing artists who benefit from the event.
For the first time in OCAC’s history, we have a contracted event planner ready to execute a major event. What we lack is funding and, due to flood impacts at the Eno Mill, a venue. Thankfully, the Town of Hillsborough has generously offered to host the inaugural event in its’ downtown and has offered partial funding to get the event off the ground.
Together, we have developed a proposal for a free, carefully curated July 4th cultural festival here in Orange County that would celebrate our people—particularly native communities—showcase local arts and historical organizations, and climax with a high-impact light show paired with a local orchestral performance. This partnership would create a new revenue stream for OCAC through vendors, sponsorships, and concessions, while aligning directly with the County’s Strategic Plan (Goal 2, Objective 7; Goal 6, Objectives 1 and 4). The OCAC hopes in future years to grow the festival and host it at the newly renovated Blackwood Farm Park.
Festivals of this scale typically require many months of planning, and we are already only five months out. To seize this opportunity and establish what could become a new annual signature event for Orange County—we need timely County consideration and support.
We hope you will view this proposal as an investment in the OCAC, one that will allow us to continue to grow.
I greatly appreciate your attention to this, and look forward to your feedback.
Sincerely,
Denise Duffy
Chair, Orange County Arts Commission Advisory Board
Jean Hamilton
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2026 9:43 AM
To: ALL_BOCC_MANAGER_CLERK <OCB...@orangecountync.gov>
Subject: Time Sensitive Note from the Arts Commission Advisory Board
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