Free Things To Do In St Louis Missouri

A Great St. Louis Tradition!

Thank you so much for attending the 2008 Shakespeare Festival St. Louis production of The Tragedy of King Richard the Third! We hope you also enjoyed the Green Show entertainment, especially our Education Tour production of Me & Richard 3.

Please join us again next year from May 20 - June 14, 2009 in Forest Park for Shakespeare's frolicking comedy,
The Merry Wives of Windsor!

By the Community For the Community

St. Louisians enjoy an evening under the stars at The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.

Because the Festival is free to all, our funding is entirely dependent on the generosity of the community. We hope you will help us to "Keep Will Free." Your contribution really makes a difference!

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis productions, education programs and events visit www.sfstl.com or 314-531-9800

- All photos courtesy of J. David Levy

Educating Learners of All Ages
free will student
Scene from the production of
MetroYouth Shakespeare's
Much Ado About Nothing.
Please help us "Keep Will Free"
CLICK HERE
Jug Jeff 2008
Juggling Jeff entertains the crowd at the
2008 Festival Green Show

Every spring, the St. Louis community comes together in Forest Park to enjoy free Shakespeare.
Bringing the Bard to You
Mid Wink Lion
Education Tour 2008 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream...In the Wink of an Eye!

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis hits the road with expertly crafted productions to dazzle and delight all ages! Clever adaptations, versatile actors and innovative designs, capture all the magic of Shakespeare's literary masterpieces while condensing them into 50-minute productions.

Call to book our Education Tour 2009 featuring:
Quick-Brewed Macbeth
and
Windsor Live!
314-531-9800 x 101

Fair St. Louis is an annual festival held during the July 4 holiday in downtown St. Louis, Missouri at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Some call it "America's largest birthday party". The event showcases a variety of attractions, educational activities, a barbecue competition, stages featuring popular entertainers, and an enormous fireworks display held nightly.

Known as the "Veiled Prophet Fair" (or sometimes just "VP Fair") prior to 1992, Fair St. Louis was organized by the Veiled Prophet Organization, a secret society of prominent St. Louisans who also put on the "Veiled Prophet Ball", a debutante ball held annually in December, as well as the Veiled Prophet Parade, which usually kicks off Fair St. Louis.

The annual Veiled Prophet Fair (VP Fair) is an event which contributes to the unique character of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It is also one of the most controversial and unusual aspects of the memorial's recent history. Billed as the nation's largest Fourth of July celebration, with attendance figures in excess of 2.5 million people annually, the VP Fair is held on the grounds of a national park, with most of the necessary costs and repairs paid for by the local Veiled Prophet Fair Foundation. Air shows, live music, nationally known celebrities, educational and family attractions, food, and fantastic evening fireworks displays attract visitors from across the country and around the world.

Free admission to a huge celebration of German Gemutlichkeit?

It might be almost too good to be true, but believe your eyes because at the St. Louis Strassenfest, there's more than enough of the German tradition. Meaning something like coziness but more like social acceptance and belonging, Gemutlichkeit seems to be the German idea of spending time with friends and family, drinking and being merry.

The Saint Louis festival held in the beginning of August has plenty of eating, drinking and being merry to go around.

Across the street from the City Hall at Memorial Park in downtown St. Louis, the Strassenfest has three stages with traditional German music, swing, jazz, rock and ragtime as traditional accompaniment to the amazing selections of German beer and food.

It just wouldn't be a festival without carnival rides, game booths, arts and crafts, so of course those are all there for the kiddies too.

There's plenty to do at the St. Louis Strassenfest besides drink, but don't let that stop you from enjoying a stein.

Laclede's Landing, St. Louis, Missouri;
Tel. 314.241.5875

The summer winds down in a big way the first weekend in September with five stages, countless blues artists and thousands of blues music fans at the Budweiser Big Muddy Blues Festival. The St. Louis Riverfront becomes the festival grounds for the Budweiser Big Muddy Blues Festival on Labor Day weekend as local St. Louis and national blues musicians and bands take the stages.

Laclede's Landing has plenty of grassy areas to set up a couple chairs or bring a blanket and a picnic basket for a cost-effective day at one of the best blues music festivals in the country. Best of all, the St. Louis Blues Festival is three days of always free music to enjoy.

St. Louis Mardi Gras

In the Soulard Neighborhood, 9th and Geyer, St. Louis, Missouri; Tel. 314.771.5110

Boasting the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the US (New Orleans, of course, will always be the reigning Mardi Gras champ),

St. Louis starts getting prepared for the traditional Mardi Gras party in January and keeps the festivities going right up until Fat Tuesday.

St. Louis is proudly home to the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the nation. Beginning in the Soulard neighborhood adjacent to downtown St. Louis some 30 years ago by bored, boozed up regulars at the former Hilary's bar when they decided to march to another establishment carrying all of the Mardi Gras accoutrements and parading down the street with 50 or so friends a piece. Before long hundreds of people were gathering each year at house parties in the Soulard neighborhood and joining in the annual midnight Mardi Gras parade.

St. Louis Mardi Gras
In the Soulard neighborhood
9th and Geyer, St. Louis, Missouri; Tel. 314.771.5110
www.mardigrasinc.com

Now the annual festival has become so large as to draw people from all over the country to St. Louis. In fact what was once just a semi-intimate party for friends now encompasses all of downtown St. Louis. The total number of partiers and participants grows exponentially every year with recent estimates reaching the half million mark. The sponsorship for the event has grown along with the festivities, not only being put on by the City of St. Louis and the neighborhood of Soulard, but by the likes of Anheuser-Busch and Southern Comfort.

The festivities start well before Fat Tuesday, in fact they start on January 6th with the annual twelfth night celebration which petitions the King of Mardi Gras to proclaim a celebration that is then followed by a short parade. Throughout January, Soulard hosts a variety of events in preparation for Mardi Gras including wine tastings and Cajun cook-offs. But, not all events are focused on booze and food there's also family friendly events like the pet parade and the Children's Art Fair. The St. Louis Mardi Gras festival is so huge that the entire city joins in the fun, even the Mayor's office hosts exclusive black tie balls at City Hall and the parade marches through all of downtown to the designated party spot in the heart of Soulard.

All of these festivities finally culminate in the mid-February Mardi Gras Grand Parade and the Fat Tuesday party. The all day parade and festival boasts dozens of floats and hundreds of thousands revelers getting in food, drink and as many sins as they can before the traditional Christian season of Lent. Of course, as with any Mardi Gras festival, the fun and madness can get a little out of hand, but the St. Louis Mardi Gras is continually known as being relatively under control, the bars in Soulard even close early in the effort to keep things from getting too crazy. You have to tip your hat to the City of St. Louis, the promoters, participants and partiers for making their Mardi Gras celebration the best block party in the Midwest.

St. Louis African Arts Festival
World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park
The African Heritage Association of St. Louis holds a four-day event in the end of May to allow the community to explore the richness of the African culture. The St. Louis African Arts Festival-located at the World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park-recreates an African village environment bringing the culture to life. The village is filled with spectators, dancers, drummers, as well as African art, jewelry, authentic hair braiding and mask making. The St. Louis African Arts Festival is a celebration of the many contributions Africans and African-Americans have made to the multiculturalism in and around St. Louis and the overall impact on Western culture. Children and adults have plenty to see and experience at the African Arts Festival.

St. Louis Pirate Festival
Rotary Park, Wentzville, Missouri; Tel. 636.928.4141
A complete period island paradise and Caribbean village full of renaissance entertainment for all ages takes over Rotary Park just outside of St. Louis in the city of Wentzville for a week in September. Throughout the St. Louis Pirate Festival a story is told of a rich governor who has invited pirates to "Fort Royal" to legitimatize them as privateers. The fictional governor also has a daughter he spoils and the French military protecting him and his rum-but mostly the rum; definitely an enthralling woven tale that won't fail to capture the imagination of kids of all ages. As the story goes on, so do the village shops and artisans showing off their craft skills and cooking delights. Comedy, music and other entertainers fill the park and make the past come alive at the St. Louis Pirates Festival.

St. Louis Storytelling Festival
Various locations throughout St. Louis, Missouri; Tel. 314.516.4000
Several organizations in the St. Louis area team up to put on the St. Louis Storytelling Festival that takes place for four imaginative days in early May. The festival brings over 60 local and national storytellers to different locations in and around St. Louis for people of all ages to enjoy the gift of storytelling, and of course the St. Louis Storytelling Festival has free admission to all of the sponsored activities. Stories are shared from different cultures and backgrounds to enlighten children and adults about other cultural viewpoints. Several parks, local St. Louis bookstores and libraries in the St. Louis area are the venues for the storytellers to captivate audiences.

St. Louis Arts Fair
Clayton Business District, Clayton, Missouri; Tel. 314.863.0278
The most competitive art show in the nation takes over the Clayton Business District for one weekend in September at the St. Louis Arts Fair that boasts over 140 exhibitor booths. Each year over 1,500 artists from all 50 states plus multiple international artists apply for one of the coveted spots. In addition to the art exhibits there are also 165 visual artists who participate in the St. Louis Art Fair and the throngs of eager spectators number in the thousands. The outdoor Art Fair that lines the streets of Clayton attracts art-lovers from far and wide to take in the work of the masters. Jurors not only select who gets to exhibit at the St. Louis Arts Fair, but they also judge art during the weekend the show is going on. Attendees have come to expect the best of the art world best at this magnificent St. Louis event.

St. Louis Earth Day
Muny Grounds in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri; 314.961.5838
Earth Day is annually celebrated on April 22 across the nation to inspire consciousness and appreciation for our planet. St. Louis citizens take their Earth Day Festival seriously, not only because they have the oldest and largest Earth Day Festival in the Midwest, but creating ecological friendly products is a large part of the St. Louis business outlook. Featured events at the St. Louis Earth Day include an Earth Day symposium at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, recycling programs and clean-up projects across St. Louis are all geared toward being or becoming eco-friendly citizens. The festival promotes environmental responsibility, education and cleanliness by bringing the community together for one day in collective celebration of the wonders of our planet and what we can do to help keep it green.

St. Louis International Film Festival
Tivoli Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri; Tel. 314.454.0042
The Tivoli Theatre, with its art-deco class, is the main host of the St. Louis International Film Festival for ten days in November. Several other theaters participate in the festival by showing films and holding programs, but the main galas and the most important films are always held at the Tivoli. Many of the cutting-edge features and shorts from around the world will only be shown in St. Louis at the festival so local film-lovers only have one opportunity to see the films without having to travel or rent. In years past the St. Louis International Film Festival has shown over 200 films from the top filmmakers and artists in the world. It's the best event in St. Louis to catch new international films, documentaries, features and shorts.

Jazz at its greatest - outside - Shaw Park in Clayton MO.

St. Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival
Shaw Park Clayton, Missouri; Tel. 314.863.0278

Every year the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival improves by bringing in bigger names and perfecting the festival experience. Integrating culture and a diverse selection of contemporary jazz, the St. Louis Jazz Festival sets out to have the audience better understand jazz as an art form with multiple dimensions.

The Marketplace inside the festival grounds exhibits the work of artists and merchants while The Improv is an area that has hands-on children's musical activities including a musical petting zoo. Those interested in learning even more about jazz have the opportunity to sit in on Soul School, a program with conversations and impromptu performances by jazz musicians, historians and teachers.

St. Louis has always been known for its jazz, but the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival takes that tradition to a whole new level.

See Article: The Best Soul Food Restaurants - St Louis Missouri

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/925187/the_best_soul_food_restaurants_in_st.html?cat=22