Phil Campbells coming to town

PHIL CAMPBELL – Since 2002, Franklin County residents have been able to enjoy Phil Campbell’s Downtown Hoedown, a festival celebrating the people and the heritage of the small town on the south end of the county.

Over the years, event participants have been able to celebrate the town by enjoying food, games and entertainment.

However, this year people who attend the festival during June 17 and 18 will get to witness an event that hasn’t occurred in the town since 1996: a mass gathering of people, both male and female, who are named Phil Campbell.

Deemed the “International Phil Campbell Convention 2011,” this event promises to be bigger than similar events held in 1995 and 1996.

According to Brooklyn, N.Y. resident Phil Campbell, who is serving as the convention coordinator, he is hoping to have somewhere around 80 people in the town who have various forms of the name Phil Campbell: Phil, Philip, Phillip, Phyllis, Philippe and Philomena, to name just a few.

Campbell is actually the one who organized the first gathering of Phil Campbells in the summer of 1995 after learning about the town from a TV show.

“At the time, I was in college at Northwestern University in Illinois,” Campbell said. “It was 1994 and a bunch of us were sitting around watching TV and we had tuned in to the show ‘Hee Haw.’

“They did a segment on the show where they would give a ‘howdy’ to small towns, usually in the South, and it just so happened that that day they were giving a ‘howdy’ to the town of Phil Campbell, Ala. I couldn’t believe there was a town that had my name.

“We didn’t have access to computers and the Internet back then, so I found a road atlas and, sure enough, there was the town of Phil Campbell.”

It was then that Campbell got the idea to visit the town bearing his name, so he planned a trip for the summer of ’94.

“I arrived in the town of Phil Campbell on a Sunday and I remember being so impressed that they city clerk actually came out to meet me,” Campbell said.

“She told me about other people named Phil Campbell who occasionally stopped by to visit and I thought it was so interesting that I wanted to get more Phil Campbells together and have us all visit at once.”

After many long hours, phone calls, and letters, the Phil Campbell Convention was officially born and took place in the town in 1995.

“That year we had 22 Phil and Phyllis Campbells that joined us for the convention,” Campbell said. “The mayor was so nice and offered to help us with anything we needed. We even received a police escort all the way to the Dismals Canyon, which we visited on our trip.”

Campbell enjoyed the event so much that he returned in 1996 but the numbers that year we small.

“We just had eight Phil Campbells in ’96,” he said. “There just weren’t enough of us and it was too far for some to come again within a year’s time.”

Campbell said he went on with his life and didn’t think much of the convention for some time, but that all changed recently when he visited the Wikipedia webpage for the town of Phil Campbell, Ala.

“I saw on the page that someone had mentioned the convention back in 1995 and it got me interested in the idea again,” he said.

Campbell said he was impressed with the area during his time here but ultimately, it was the real southern hospitality that prompted him to plan another convention.

“I remember how nice everyone was to all of us, and it just stuck with me how friendly the people in Phil Campbell were. I wanted to do the convention again so I started trying to figure out how to make it happen.”

Campbell said with the dawn of social networks like Facebook, it has been much easier this time around than it was back in 1995.

“I have ‘friended’ 188 Phil Campbells on Facebook and have had close to 80 of those join my group page for the Phil Campbell Convention 2011,” he said. “They’re excited about the event and about visiting a place that carries their name.”

Unlike the conventions in 1995 and 1996 which only included Phil Campbells in the United States, Campbell said the International Phil Campbell Convention will be just that – international.

“There is a Scottish Phil Campbell who has committed to come, a Phil Campbell from England and a Phil Campbell from Australia,” he said.

“The Scottish Phil Campbell is actually an accomplished musician and plans to sing for the group and a Phil Campbell from Birmingham is bringing the whole Alabama Pipes and Drum marching troupe, which he is a part of, with him to the event.”

Campbell said he decided to hold the convention during the time set aside for the Phil Campbell Downtown Hoedown because he wanted all the Phils to mingle with the Phil Campbell residents.

“When we held the convention before, we did our own thing that was separate from the town and didn’t really get a chance to mingle with the people,” he said, “but the people are so nice down there that I just want to include them in the event, too.”

To make the event flow seamlessly into the activities the town has planned for the Downtown Hoedown, Campbell has been coordinating with Hoedown organizer Rita Barton who is excited about the event.

“Phil has been great to work with and he’s really excited about the convention,” Barton said. “I’m working with Mayor Mays on a letter that we’ll send out to all the Phil Campbells officially inviting them to our town and we should be able to get that letter out soon.

“This will be a great event for the Phil Campbells, but it will also be a great event for our town and for the county. With all these extra people coming in with their families, the revenue will help support our local economy.”

Campbell said he didn’t have many specific activities planned for the group of Phils because he wanted them to enjoy the local activities and events.

“I am so glad that the town of Phil Campbell is in the South because Southerners know how to greet strangers,” Campbell said. “They know how to roll with something fun.

“I have lived all over – in Ohio, Memphis, Seattle, Kentucky and now Ney York – and I know that if we were trying to have this event somewhere in the North, people wouldn’t get into it at all. But here in the South, we will be received with a big-hearted welcome.”