by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Once again, the Fourth of July festivities in St. Joseph attracted an estimated 20,000 people to the city’s downtown for two days of fun that included an evening filled with pop-rock music and fireworks, and a day featuring the big parade, games, a quilt auction, and lots and lots of vendor food.
The annual festival is one of the oldest and most successful of any festival in Minnesota. It’s now attended by the great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren of the festival’s first participants 110 years ago. The first festival, in 1906, was held to raise money for a clock for the church tower.
On Sunday evening and Monday, the venues were so packed with people at times that it was sometimes difficult to move through the crowds. But nobody seemed to mind; everyone looked like they were having a fine time.
The Joetown Rocks concert featured a variety of music – rock, pop, country – by bands that included The Graduates, Matt Vee Family and Friends, The Crown Jewels and Dixie Maiden. People sat in the packed audience in lawn chairs, but many got up to sway to the music or to dance. Dazzling fireworks topped the night.
The next day, Minnesota Street was jam-packed with spectators to watch the long parade, sponsored once again by the St. Joseph Lions Club. Afterward, crowds enjoyed the Parish Festival on the grounds of the St. Joseph Catholic Church with children’s games and rides, bingo, a beer garden and a staggering variety of foods.
The winners, first place and second place respectively, among the parade units and their categories were the following:
Wow! Extreme!: St. Joseph Cub Scouts Pack 84, Great Northern Theatre Company; Cool Youth: Catholic Community Schools, Pineview Park BMX and Halfway Jam; Fourth of July Theme: Rock On Trucks, St. Joseph Historical Society; Best-Dressed Businesses: Bernick’s 100-Year Anniversary, St. Cloud Toyota; Classy Vehicles: State Bank of Cold Spring, Jacobs Prairie Tractor Gang; and Animals: Notsch’s Belgians, Plafcan Ponies.
The St. Joseph Lions Club wishes to thank all participants and sponsors of the parade.
Friends enjoy a game of bingo at the St. Joseph Fourth of July Parish Festival. From left to right are Kamrin Ruprecht, Kelinda Ruprecht (brother and sister from Richmond) and Alyssa Marshik of Paynesville.
Sister Betty Larson approaches bingo caller Marvin Maskey with a customer’s winning bingo card July 3 during the two-day St. Joseph Fourth of July Parish Festival.
Children zoom in circles on the Kiddie Car ride at the St. Joseph Fourth of July Parish Festival. The event, now in its 110th year, attracted an estimated 20,000 people to downtown St. Joseph.
Festival-goers line up at the ever-popular Mexican stand at the St. Joseph Fourth of July Parish Festival.
Children have a field day on the playground of the St. Joseph Catholic Church Parish House during the Fourth of July Festival.
Nik and Emmalyn Lovaas of Sauk Rapids enjoy a lunch with their children, Lindsey (left) and Elijah, during the St. Joseph Fourth of July Parish Festival.
David and Sarah Key of Plymouth enjoy snacks with their children, Adam (left) and Clint, during the St. Joseph Fourth of July Festival.
A densely packed crowd enjoys the live music of Joetown Rocks July 3 in St. Joseph.
It was a hot, humid evening, but nobody seemed to mind at the annual Joetown Rocks concert July 3 in St. Joseph.
Singer Ellie Theisen, a Cathedral High School senior, belts out a tune at the Joetown Rocks concert July 3 in St. Joseph. Theisen is a member of the youth band dubbed The Graduates.
Paul and Jeanne Friebe groove to the music of The Graduates during the Joetown Rocks concert in St. Joseph July 3. The event attracted thousands of people from far and wide.
The color guard from American Legion Post 328 leads off the Fourth of July parade in St. Joseph.
A long line of vintage tractors make their way through St. Joseph as part of the city’s Fourth of July parade.
Daisy Raden, 18 months, of St. Cloud, gets to meet one of the Wild West Show performers along the Fourth of July parade route in St. Joseph.
Stage coach robbers from the Wild Creek Entertainers Wild West Show talk over their next move during their performance at the Fourth of July parade in St. Joseph.
Kids from the National Karate studio put on martial arts demonstrations during the Fourth of July parade in St. Joseph.
The Ringsmuth Riders Unicycle team performs their tricky moves during the Fourth of July parade in St. Joseph.
The Alexandria Marching Band play their musical instruments for the crowd at the Fourth of July parade in St. Joseph.