What is Fancy Farm? Everything you need to know about the Kentucky political tradition

The St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic, known often as simply ‘Fancy Farm,’ is many things.

A humongous church picnic fundraiser, a barbecue mecca and a must-stop event for any aspiring politician, the event known commonly as just ‘Fancy Farm’ is held in far Western Kentucky on the first Saturday in August every year.

Fancy Farm is the name of the town in which the event is held — but its name has gained prominence statewide thanks in large part to its role as the unofficial kickoff to the general election campaign season.

The annual picnic began in 1881, but it wasn’t until A.B. ‘Happy’ Chandler ran for lieutenant governor in 1931 that the event got popularized statewide, when primaries took place in August and the event date was much closer to an important election. From then on, the event grew in political prominence and overall size.

In the 1980s, it set a record for being “the world’s largest picnic,” and has become known for its signature barbecue offerings including mutton.

While politics has somewhat shifted away from a focus on such events — known as political speakings — Fancy Farm has grown in spite of that. Part of the appeal is the abundance of ‘zingers,’ or jokes at the expense of their opponent.

“I’s a no-holds-barred type of speaking. It used to be called stump speaking, when the the politicians would get on a stump elevated above the crowd and just raise holy heck and say whatever they want to about their opponents. Some of that tradition still goes on,” Jack Brammer, former capitol reporter for the Herald-Leader for more than 40 years, said in a 2019 interview.

This year, every candidate for statewide office in November has signed up to speak. The local state representative and senator always get a short speaking slot. The longest amount of time given to speak — candidates are cut off once they hit their max speaking time by Bluegrass music — is reserved for governors and major gubernatorial candidates, U.S. senators and senate candidates and the local U.S. Congressman. First Congressional District Rep. James Comer, R-KY, is the area’s congressman.

Current statewide officeholders not running for anything, like commissioner of agriculture Ryan Quarles and auditor Mike Harmon, also get time to speak.

Memorable recent moments include when former governor Steve Beshear, Gov. Andy Beshear’s father, took a picture with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, in 2014 and remarked that he “had to get one last photo of the senator before Kentucky voters retire him.” McConnell went on to defeat Democratic opponent Allison Lundergan Grimes by more than 15 percentage points.

Last year, Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-KY, wife Kelley Paul — speaking on behalf of her husband who was working in Washington — made headlines for her focus on transgender and LGBTQ issues. That prompted a memorable off-the-cuff response speech from little-known Democratic congressional candidate Jimmy Ausbrooks, who is gay.

While Gov. Andy Beshear did not attend last year, leaving the event relatively thin on Democrats, his re-election opponent this year Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron did.

Cameron faced raucous chants of “Breonna Taylor,” whose police killing he prosecuted, from Democrats. The attorney general pumped his fist and told the crowd “always have your back and we will always support the blue,” prompting thunderous applause from the GOP side.

Sometimes, gimmicks and outlandish stunts play a role.

In 2019, former Republican governor Matt Bevin notably brought a huge print-out of an invitation to a Beshear fundraiser co-hosted by a Kentucky abortion clinic owner. He later directed the crowd to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. In 2003, Democrats tried to lampoon Ernie Fletcher as a ‘job terminator’ with a giant head in the likeness of Fletcher and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2010, Democrats set up ‘Rand Paul’s Waffle House’ in an attempt to highlight Paul’s changing positions.

Big names to have attended Fancy Farm include former Democratic vice president Al Gore, McConnell, former Kentucky U.S. Senator Alben Barkley and infamous segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace.

Al Cross, a veteran political observer and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, said that the speeches are more “performance art” than debate.

“There’s a history of humor and cutting remarks, but you also have to deal with the cheering section of the other side and the hecklers of the other side... It really is a test of one’s mettle,” Cross said.