The late summer/fall festival season begins this Sunday, August 20, with the Breakaway-Bardog 5K and Monroe Avenue Festival, raising money to support the great work done at St. Jude. No child’s family ever receives a bill for their cancer treatment at the children’s hospital.
The 5K, which happens at 9 AM, has become one of the biggest in the city, with 1500 runners. After they get done running, they enjoy one of the best after-parties around.
At noon the Monroe Avenue Fest starts, stretching from Front to all the way on the other side of Main this year. Once upon a time this party fit in the alley next to Bardog. Not anymore! Way too much going on!
All day long they will be collecting money toward the head-shaving of Taylor, one of the bartenders at Bardog. They are hoping to raise $10,000 for St. Jude just from the head shaving alone. Taylor is new to Bardog and it is awesome that she jumped right in and volunteered to have her head shaved. Please drop some money in the bucket to support her! If you can’t be there Sunday but want to donate toward her fund, you can drop by donations to Bardog this week. If you want to get your hair cut for St. Jude as well (you don’t have to shave your head), Dabbles will have a pop-up salon.
There’s also the dunk tank, where you can donate to St. Jude to buy balls in an attempt to dunk local celebrities as well as various folks from Bardog, Slider Inn, and both Aldo’s Pizza locations.
New this year will be a food truck court including STIX, Fuel Cafe, Bedrock Eats, and more.
You can buy an entry to a special craft beer tent and enjoy samples from over 20 different brewers thanks to Eagle Distributing. Bell’s and Sweetwater will be among the brands represented.
The Michael Brothers, Me & Leah, and Marcella and her brothers will provide the live music at the festival. DJ Superman will also be on hand.
Face painting, cotton candy, The 901 Balloon Guy, Sache T-shirt truck, Amurica photo booth, Rockey Redbird, the Grizzline… there will be no shortage of things to do. Be sure to buy raffle tickets, because fabulous prizes donated by the events sponsors will be given away throughout the afternoon.
If you want to really do this festival in style, buy a ticket to the VIP tent. It will be catered by McEwen’s, Felicia Suzanne’s, Bardog Tavern, Aldo’s Pizza Pies, Jameson, Fireball, and Old Dominick.
In the late afternoon the fun kicks into overdrive, as it will be time for Grandma’s Meatball Eating Contest. Perhaps you have tried the meatballs with spaghetti or on a sandwich at Bardog, or on a pizza at Aldo’s Pizza Pies. Those meatballs are Aldo’s grandmother’s recipe, and will will see who can eat the most balls with their hands behind their back in a set period of time.
Then it will be time to take the electric shaver to Taylor! You’ll get one last chance to drop in a donation before the clippers are turned on.
This is a fun, fun, fun event and I encourage all of you to come out. I will be there for the entire duration of Monroe Fest, noon to 6, and I plan on taking some pictures for the blog. Every year this festival raises more and more money for St. Jude. Together we can kick the amount raised into six figures for 2017!