Celebrate Fourth Of July With St. Joseph’s Beloved Parish Festival

ST. JOSEPH (WJON News) -- It's been a tradition in St. Joseph for over 100 years. The Church of St. Joseph parish festival has been held on the 4th of July for more than a century now.

Spokesman Bruce Bechtold says it began out of necessity.

They started the church festival to put bells in the bell tower back over 100 years ago, then it just continued after that.  July 3rd started morphing about 25 years ago when parishioners decided that since they had everything set up already, to have some karaoke and entertainment the night before, and just blossomed and grew.

Bechtold says the event has been known as Joetown Rocks for 19 years now.

The events start on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. when the food and games booth opens.

Bechtold says the big stage will have live music throughout the night, including The Killer Vees & Friends starting at 9:00 p.m.

This year, with the Killer Vees, they are getting Maggie O'Donnell, Michael Shynes, Esera Tuaolo, and Clayton Ryan.  Each of those artists is going to perform alone, and then at the end, the whole crew is going to have a joint performance.

There will be fireworks at 10:15 p.m. on Thursday.

Friday's events include the parade at 10:00 a.m., organized by the St. Joseph Lions Club, a quilt auction at 1:00 p.m., and a raffle drawing at 3:00 p.m.

Bechtold says they are bringing back the 100-year-old Merry-Go-Round for the kids to ride. This is the largest fundraiser of the year for the Church of St. Joseph.

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It takes over 500 parishioners to volunteer during the two days. They estimate between 15,000 and 20,000 people attend the July 3rd live music show.

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