All play on Labor Day
St. Louis has taken the work out of planning a fun-filled Labor Day weekend. The only effort you’ll exert will be trying to pack in all the fun the Gateway City has to offer during summer’s last blast weekend. All play, no work, and many no cost events fill The Lou’s Labor Day Weekend calendar.
Feel the rhythm and find your groove on Labor Day Weekend at St. Louis’ annual Budweiser Big Muddy Blues Festival. The free, three-day event, one of the nation’s best blues music fests, takes place in the historic Laclede’s Landing entertainment district along the banks of the Mighty Mississippi. The free, all ages event features more than 40 of the best national and local blues musicians on five stages. Headline acts include The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Shemekia Copeland, Sonny Landreth, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Eddie Cotton & The Mississippi Cotton Club.
For a complete list of artists and performance times, click on www.lacledeslanding.com.
Be hip and hop atop the historic Eads Bridge that spans the Mighty Mississippi for a Hip Hop Festival on Saturday, September 2. Several of St. Louis’ vibrant ethnic cultures will be on display during the Labor Day weekend. Join St. Louis’ soulful son Michael McDonald as he joins legendary jazz rock icons Donald Fagin and Walter Becker, better known as Steely Dan, at the UMB Bank Pavilion on Labor Day evening. For ticket info, click on www.livenation.com.
Look! Up in the sky! There’s a lot to look up at during the four-day St. Louis County Fair and Air Show. Between the exciting air shows featuring Harriers, Phantoms, bi-planes, B2s and other aircraft and the elaborate nightly firework displays, fairgoers can enjoy great live music, specialty play areas for kids including a Wild West Show, BMX stunt bike demonstrations and, of course, yummy fair food treats. The festivities take place on the fairgrounds of Spirit of St. Louis Airport in suburban Chesterfield. Hours are: Friday, September 1 from 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, September 2 and 3 from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. and Labor Day Monday, September 4 from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Adults tickets are $8.00; Seniors (60-plus), $4.00; Children 6-12, $4.00. Kids
five-years-old and younger are free. For details and directions, click on www.stlcofair.org.
Sumo and anime return!
The big hits from last year’s festival are back by popular demand at the
30th Annual Japanese Festival which takes over the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Garden from 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 2 and Sunday, September 3 and from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, September 4. Demonstrations of sumo, the official sport of Japan and screenings of a Japanese cartoon or anime film are highlights of this grand celebration. The wildly popular anime genre film “Inuyasha: Swords of an Honorable Father” will be screened on Saturday from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Visitors also can tour the nation’s largest traditional Japanese garden, browse an arts and crafts marketplace, sample exotic foods, hear traditional taiko drum performances, experience tea ceremonies and much more. A detailed schedule of Japanese Festival events is available at www.mobot.org.
Shop for artists’ labors of love at the St. Louis Fall Fine Arts Festival held at the Greensfelder Recreation Center in Queeny Park. Artistic wares including jewelry, sculpture, pottery, photography
and more will be on view and for sale on Friday, September 1 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.; Saturday,
September 2 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 3 from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Discerning shoppers can seek more one-of-a-kind treasures at the Central West End Craft Festival on that Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Craft booths sit along the sidewalk-café-filled streets of Maryland and Euclid Avenues in this popular, pretty strolling neighborhood near Forest Park.
While in the Central West End, stop by St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church’s Greek Festival to put some “Opa!” in your Labor Day Weekend. The festival opens at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and closes at 9:00 p.m. on the weekend and 8:00 p.m. on Monday. Delectable Greek culinary specialties, music, dance demonstrations and a Greek import bazaar await. If the festival stirs up your interest in all things Greek, head a few blocks west of St. Nicholas to the Saint Louis Science Center. The giant-screen film “Greece: Secrets of the Past” is on view at the Science Center’s OMNIMAX Theatre. For screening times, directions and ticket information, click on www.slsc.org.
You can say “thank you” to the working families of America and remember the real reason for the holiday weekend at St. Louis’ annual Labor Day Parade. The parade begins Labor Day Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. at Broadway and Market streets in downtown St. Louis and ends at 15th street near St. Louis Union Station.
St. Louis’ only Civil War battle site comes alive September 1 – 3 during the Camp Jackson Living History Reenactment. The free event includes history seminars, display of a pre-Civil War militia encampment, Civil War-era equipment and authentic drills. Events transpire at Saint Louis University, Grand and Lindell in mid-town St. Louis, the actual site of historic Camp Jackson. History and Civil War buffs can find details at www.sluma.slu.edu.
For a listing of these and other events taking place in St. Louis over Labor Day Weekend and throughout September, click on the Calendar of Events section at www.beatourist.com
