Festival season has officially arrived, with some oldies, some goodies and an amphibious anomaly
There’s nothing like that first Day-Glo spring day, when you can’t recall the color of dead grass and all the birds have returned from their winter vacations and the dogwoods are blooming their heads off. That day often falls in May—which perhaps explains why St. Louis’ curiously busy summer festival season starts this month.
Florissant’s Valley of Flowers Festival (May 4–6, 601 rue St. Charles, Florissant, 314-837-0033, florissantoldtown.com) is billed as “the first festival of spring.” The killer book sale is gone, but you’ll be too busy to miss it; last year’s event included a flea market, bingo, barbecue, a ventriloquist, “comedy pet theater” and tours of the Old St. Ferdinand shrine. If you’re allergic to pollen—or just partial to feathers—there’s always the two-year-old Wings of Spring Confluence Birding Festival (May 4–6, West Alton, Mo., and multiple locations, 800-258-6645, wingsofspring.org) with myriad chances to peer at birds: from hills, river bluffs, flood plains and even cruisers and kayaks on the Mississippi.
The folks behind the Waynesville Frog Fest (May 5 & 6, Waynesville City Park, 573-774-6171, geocities.com/frog_fest) prefer to champion amphibians … sort of. Ten years ago, when the Missouri Department of Transportation was widening a highway nearby, they did a lot of rock blasting and left a little outcropping that resembled a frog. Residents painted it to look as such and then started a festival in its honor, with a frog-kissing contest, barbecued frog legs and jousting matches staged by the local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism.
America’s favorite sad clown, Weary Willie, whose visage has graced many a velvet canvas, called Houston, Mo., home—and clowns from around the world, happy and sad, celebrate his life during the Emmett Kelly Clown Festival (May 4 & 5, downtown Houston, 417-967-2220, houstonmochamber.com). Non-clowns are welcome, but will be outnumbered by the greasepaint set. (And if you don’t care for clowns, there’s always the antiques sale.)
Fruehlingsfest (May 6, 618-458-6660, maeystown.com) takes place in 155-year-old Maeystown, Ill. The entire village is listed on the National Register of Historical Places, and there’s not an ATM to be found, not even at the bar. So pocket some cash beforehand to take advantage of potato pancakes, fried before your eyes on an outdoor grill on the main drag, or shop for heirloom tomatoes and Deco furniture on the banks of a creek at the outdoor plant and antiques sale.
The St. Louis African Arts Festival (May 25–28, World’s Fair Pavilion, Forest Park, 314-935-9676, stlafricanartsfest.org) began as an extension of Wash. U.’s African-studies conference. The grounds consist of an African “village” where you can immerse yourself in African culture, including kente fabric, a head-wrap demonstration, masks from Kenya, injera bread and hand drumming. There’s also a miniature version of the village set up for kids.
The famous “Maple Leaf Rag” was penned in honor of Sedalia’s Maple Leaf Club, and that venue is part of the town’s five-day Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival (May 30–June 3, 866-218-6258, scottjoplin.org). More than 40 musicians will travel to Sedalia for this event, including the TurpinTyme Ragsters, named for the proprietor of St. Louis’ infamous Rosebud Café, Tom Turpin. Check out the free concerts held at the Katy Depot and Gazebo Park.
The syncopation of ragtime prefigured bebop, swing jazz and fusion; hear the evolution at the Saint Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival (June 2, Shaw Park, Clayton, 314-863-0278, www.saintlouisjazzfest.com). This year’s bill includes Jeanne Trevor, who began her career at the Black Horse in Gaslight Square, Latin supergroup S.L. Son and Grammy winner Poncho Sanchez.
We haven’t found any animal fairs where old baboons comb their hair by the light of the moon (or the monkeys get drunk), but there are festivals for just about everything else, some as late as October; for current festival listings, check explorestlouis.com and visitmo.com.
