St. Joe’s Picnic

St. Joe’s Picnic has been around for almost longer than seems possible.
This year was its 166^th picnic, and to put that into perspective, consider that Abraham Lincoln was 40 years old the year of the first St. Joe’s Picnic — 11 years from becoming president. Mark Twain was a teenager.
St. Joe’s Picnic is older than:
* Old Louisville,
* the Civil War,
* the Kentucky Derby,
* refrigeration, the telephone and light bulbs.
That is damn impressive.
It’s a large festival to benefit the St. Joe’s Children’s Home, which started as an orphanage and is now a residential treatment program for abused and neglected children, a therapeutic foster care and adoption program and a child development center. The Picnic is definitely for a good cause.
And the free festival includes tent after tent of cheap (i.e. 10¢ and 25¢) gambling games, bingo, beer and my favorite, the cake booth! You put a dime down on a number; the number gets called; you win a cake! It’s brilliant! That’s some gambling I can get in to.
But I always find it entertaining that there is some decadence and depravity under the surface of St. Joe’s Picnic. It’s a family event, but as the night gets later, the beer definitely starts to kick in. You can spot the folks talking just a bit too loud or making out behind the booths.
We had time to make this observation this year as we were spending 30 minutes or so in a food line — only to order and then be sent to another line to wait for our food. Friends who opted for other treats found similar experiences at other booths. (Tip for next year: Eat before you go!)
The beer lines were crazy fast and short, though, for better or worse. It was nice that friends who were not in line would run and grab us beer while we waited.
Some other things to note if you haven’t been yet. All the food and drink is sold via tickets at $ 1 per ticket. So if you are off in your estimations, you might overspend and go home with a pocketful of unused tickets. On the other hand, St. Joe’s Picnic is on the affordable side for a festival.
And parking might be a hassle. But to make the most of it, park a bit farther down on Frankfort Avenue, and use that time to duck into some shops along the way.
So to summarize: Long history. Good cause. Cake! Beer! Tickets. Parking.
Every Louisvillian should go to St. Joe’s Picnic at least once. There are other festivals that I look forward to more, but it’s such a fun part of Louisville’s history that you can’t miss it.