Festival Time at St. Patrick's...

We had a very successful Fiestas Patrias at St. Patrick's Catholic Church this past weekend.  Church festivals are fund raisers with the profits from food sales, of which many different cultures are represented, games and more to benefit education at the church. Cathy and I played music for the Mass, along with brother in law Matt we operated the jail and me and Matt helped with the set up and take down of the festival infrastructure. Cathy and I have a long history with the church festivals going back to the early 1990s. 

At that time the Feast of our Patron Saint, Patrick was the big festival. For a few years Cathy and I, along with a rotating cast of movers and shakers served as chair people of this festival renting the Expo Center, transporting every chair and table (we talking back then those big old elementary school tables built to shelter from a nuclear blast) from the church campus and Knights of Columbus Hall to the venue, having Mass there for 1000 people, entertainment and games. One year we even raffled off a Cadillac car donated by a local dealer. Seems like at the time a Caddy cost about $30,000 and we made close to $50,000.   

Interest waned in this kind of huge effort. After a few years when fest time approached and I began calling volunteers once I said, "This is Carl from St. Patrick's," I started getting hung up on. Now in the time of cell phones they would see my name and reject my call. The fest was pulled back to the church campus dwindling in size until now for a few years it has been a potluck dinner.

Parishioners that are the age of my kids remember these big festivals. They sometimes ask me why we don't do that anymore. I tell them because back then I was in my mid 30s and now I'm closing on the late 60s. Whoever wants a big festival needs to put it on. I think I participated well in the physical work setting this year's fest up and there were adequate volunteers but it would be nice to see a few more strong men in the 18-35 year old range.       

Always good food at the festivals. I can tell you though from long St. Patrick's experience that while green food coloring cakes and cookies do pretty well but with all the great Mexican food Irish Stew does not sell. 

Lots of good local entertainers. Would you dress, dance, sing or do something to represent your culture at a festival? We have such a rich heritage here I would like to see some multicultural event. The world would be a better place if we all educated each other about ourselves.   

The jail that me, Cathy and Matt ran. It's a big fundraiser. $5 to put someone in jail, $5 to buy their parole and $10 for a get out of jail free all day card. After apprehending so many 10 year old bad hombres I had to rest so I would have some legs left for loading chairs at the end. 

I didn't get this band's name but they were great. 

The Lufkin Police Band, the Crimestoppers has played Fiestas Patrias two years in a row. They like the gig. 

The children's choir. This is an up and coming group and I may write a blog on them later. 

Thanks to everyone who pitched in for the work of operating this event. It was good fun. See you at the next one.