‘He’s inherited the sins of the founder’: Art in the Park drops Chick-fil-A as sponsor

Art in the Park has dropped Chick-Fil-A as a sponsor, citing a controversial past.

One of Windsor’s marquis events has made a high-profile move to ditch a fast-food sponsor over its fraught relationship with the LGBTQ2S+ community — and begrudgingly so.

On Tuesday, the chair of the Art in the Park organizing committee told CTV News the decision to remove Chick-fil-A as a sponsor of the volunteer-run event was in response to online discontent that grew quickly following the sponsorship reveal for the 2026 edition of the festival.

“He’s inherited the sins of the founder,” said Allan Kidd, committee chair and past president of the Rotary Club of Windsor 1918, of the local Chick-fil-A operator. “It’s vicious and ugly. We don’t have the time or resources to litigate it in public. It’s a no win [situation]. We’re being attacked by both sides too and we had to make a decision.”

Kidd describes the pushback to Chick-fil-A’s sponsorship as fierce and wrestled with the decision to oust the brand, losing $5,000 in sponsorship along with “thousands of free meals” from the American chicken chain.

“It’s a real kick in the teeth in order to placate a group that’s very adamant that this is harmful to our community,” said Kidd.

That loss is being felt in what Kidd calls a down year for sponsorship money and hopes there is a sponsor who wants to step up to fill the gap.

Kidd estimates the festival costs about $400,000 to put on and provides $200,000 in benefit to the community every year.

Art in the Park is set to return for its 47^th edition June 6-7 at Willistead Park.

Community concern

The uproar is in stark contrast to 2024, when Kidd says there was no noise over Chick-fil-A’s sponsorship of that year’s event.

Speaking to CTV News’ sister station AM800 News, Syx Langemann applauded the move by the committee to dump Chick-fil-A after helping to spearhead the pushback.

“There may have been some blindness due to seeing green and thinking that they were getting a great sponsor or at least a lot of money so they could do something with the sponsor,” Langemann told AM800 News. “But the mission statements of those two companies — that being Chick-fil-A and the Rotary [Club of Windsor] — don’t line up at all.”

The fast-food favourite is no stranger to controversy, as evidenced by its expansion into Windsor.

The company has a long history of donating millions of dollars to anti-LGBT groups under founder S. Truett Cathy as well as his son and successor, Dan Cathy.

Chick-fil-A has also faced multiple cases of employee discrimination over gender identity and sexual orientation, including high-profile cases reported by HuffPost in 2012 and the Advocate in 2022.

Following years dogged by the issue, Chick-fil-A announced in late 2019 it would no longer donate to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or the Salvation Army and would focus its charitable contributions instead toward organizations that value differences, ensure equal access, and create a culture of belonging.

CTV News has reached out to Chick-fil-A for comment but has not received a response as of publishing.

Model citizen

Kidd says he spoke to the local operator before the decision was made.

“He totally understands there’s no hard feelings,” said Kidd. “This local guy is just a model citizen and he’s trying to do his best to make a change in terms of the image that’s attached to this name.”

Kidd stressed Art in the Park will continue to support all community groups helping those in need, including the Rainbow Alliance and the Salvation Army in Windsor-Essex.

“It hurts to be attacked when you’re only trying to do something good,” said Kidd.

As for the so-called keyboard warriors that kicked off the firestorm of opposition, Kidd hopes to see them get out from behind their screens to lend a helping hand.

“Easter weekend it really went crazy,” said Kidd. “I thought maybe the activists would get tired fingers from all that work, but no such luck.”

“When activists get their fingers tired, I would encourage them to join Rotary. I want to introduce them to people that don’t own computers that really need help,” added Kidd.