2014 Archdiocese of Indianapolis Parish Festivals

The Little Flower Summerfest is scheduled for May 30 to June 1.
AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2011, all rights reserved.

By Bob Burchfield, Editor
AroundIndy.com, LLC
http://aroundindy.com/fairs.php

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis released its 2014 parish festival schedule last Friday, with more than 80 events across the southern half of Indiana between now and October from Indianapolis to Clarksville, Tell City to Terre Haute, and Brookville to Bloomington. Ranging from picnics and yard sales to dinners and street festivals, the parishes of the archdiocese offer a wide variety of fun events each year, and many of them offer free admission as well.

Antipasto salad at the Italian Street Festival. AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2010, all rights reserved.

Even though I’m not of the Catholic faith and tradition, I’ve come to appreciate these annual events that perhaps best embody Indiana’s newly-adopted “Honest to Goodness” tourism slogan, events where you can enjoy some good, clean fun in a more intimate setting with smaller crowds than typically found at larger fairs and festivals across the state.

Three come to mind as personal favorites:

1. LITTLE FLOWER SUMMERFEST. The Little Flower Parish Summerfest is coming this weekend, May 30 to June 1, 2014. It’s a neighborhood parish festival with carnival rides, good food, games, a raffle, live entertainment, and more, located at 1401 North Bosart Avenue on Indy’s east side (see photo above). This year’s festival is open on Friday from 5 to 11 pm, Saturday from 3 to 11 pm, and Sunday from 11:30 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 317-357-8352.
2. ITALIAN STREET FESTIVAL. Holy Rosary Parish at 520 Stevens Street (across the street from Eli Lilly & Co.) hosts the popular Italian Street Festival each year on the 2nd weekend in June. This year’s festival is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, June 13-14, 5 to 11 pm each day. It took a year off in 2012, but it came back strong last year and promises to be even better in 2014. With a terrific selection of Italian delicacies, this festival is pretty tough to beat when it comes to good food. For more information, call 317-636-4478.
3. MID-SUMMER FESTIVAL. This event is billed as “the festival that’s tops in food,” and it’s easy to see why when you check out the food tent, the indoor dining room, and other food offerings on the grounds of St. Christopher Catholic Church at West 16th Street and Lynhurst Drive in Speedway. With carnival rides, games, live music and other activities, this parish festival is definitely worth a visit. It’s scheduled for July 17-19 this year: Thursday, 4-10 pm, Friday 4-11 pm, and Saturday 12-11 pm. For more information, call 317-241-6314.

Filipino Chicken at the St. Christopher Mid-Summer Festival.
AroundIndy.com staff photo, (c) 2012, all rights reserved.

Mentioning these three festivals is certainly not an attempt to denigrate any of the other parish festivals across the archdiocese. There are a lot of other excellent parish festivals all over southern Indiana. These just happen to be three that I like really well. You can view the complete 2014 Parish Festival Schedule at this URL: http://www.archindy.org/criterion/local/2014/05-23/festivals.html