For the past three decades, Taste of St. Louis has been one of the highest profile food events in a region that’s increasingly chock-full of them. It was huge news—and controversy—when organizers moved it to Chesterfield in 2014. New organizers brought it back to downtown St. Louis in 2019, saying it was “where the festival belongs.”
Now those same organizers are preparing to decamp for suburban pastures. Chuck Justus, a co-director of the event, confirms that they’re seeking to move to downtown Clayton. He said the layout will afford the festival more room than its previous home at Ballpark Village, and that Clayton’s more central location will be attractive to attendees.
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“To me, it’s moving the event closer to the population center of the greater St Louis area,” he says. “I think it puts it more in a place that’s accessible. Everyone from downtown St. Louis, Richmond Heights, Maryland Heights, you’re right in the middle of all that stuff.”
Justus resists the idea that those people weren’t willing to come to downtown St. Louis, saying that as he walked around past events, he was struck by how far people were traveling to attend. “You would not believe the number of people that are from St. Charles that are coming to Ballpark Village,” he says. “I talked to folks that were coming from Festus. It was kind of remarkable, the number of people. There’s even a lot of people from Cape Girardeau who come up and make a weekend of it.”
Why It Matters: Downtown St. Louis took its lumps when organizers of Q in the Lou cancelled the homegrown festival this past summer, just two weeks before showtime. TV news coverage claimed that corporate sponsors were worried about being downtown after a recent high-profile shooting. For Taste of St. Louis, Justus stressed that safety was not a concern. “There was never a security issue in the city of St. Louis,” he said.
At heart, he says, it’s about needing to expand the festival to make it pencil out even with a flood of competitors. “Everyone is really struggling, and everybody’s kind of fighting for the same dollar,” he says of the local festival scene. “To keep a festival free is very hard, and it’s becoming harder.”
Justus notes that Clayton makes hosting a festival more cost-effective. “A big thing in the city of St. Louis is having to rent all the street and all the parking meters. You have to buy all those out, and so you’ve spent $10,000, $15,000 before you’ve even played a single musical note on a stage,” he says. Clayton, he adds, makes it easy.
Clayton Mayor Michelle Harris says festival organizers sought out the city rather than vice versa. She says, “Although we did not invite Taste of St. Louis to move to Clayton, we are happy to host a much-loved event for the benefit of the regional community!”
What’s Next: Festival organizers will outline their plans before the Clayton Board of Aldermen tonight. While Harris says that presentation is strictly informational, aldermen will need to be on board for the idea to move forward.
Organizers hope to host the event from August 15–17 and are asking for Clayton’s permission to close Brentwood and South Meramec from Thursday through Sunday. Justus stressed that they want to maintain access to local businesses during the closure—and hope they will actually see a bump in business.
“We want to be a good neighbor to these brick-and-mortar restaurants,” he says.
