KFTC Rocks Fancy Farm

The annual Fancy Farm Picnic is an odd Kentucky political tradition in which partisan political campaigns, barbecue enthusiasts, Bingo players, and thousands of political enthusiasts come together at St. Jerome's Parish in far, far Western Kentucky for a day of stump speeches, RC Cola, and Bingo, and way too much food. 

The event is largely about the candidates, who launch searing political attacks against each other in a hostile environment as supporters of the opposing candidate try to shout them down and boo them off of the stage.

If that doesn't sound like what Democracy should look like to you, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth members ardently agree with you, which is why we brought several dozen members out to the event from Louisville, Bowling Green, Northern Kentucky, Lexington, as well as some of our members far Western Kentucky.

Our plan was to challenge the partisan, zero-sum, and frankly mean dynamics at Fancy Farm and to instead try to have conversations with candidates and other political enthusiasts about real issues that we can work together on to make Kentucky a better place for all of us.

We passed out over 400 fans with KFTC's Vision Statement on the back and about 750 lapel stickers for our Voting Rights campaign, plus hundreds of copies of our newsletter balancing the scales.

With 43 KFTC members canvassing the crowd, we managed to have a lot of key conversations with candidates, elected officials, allies, media outlets, KFTC members in Western KY we don't usually get to see, and others.  Prominent Republican and Democratic Party leaders alike commented on the strong showing by KFTC, something we hope they both remember during the Legislative Session early next year. 

KFTC has brought smaller groups to Fancy Farm for the last few years, but never nearly this many.  It was the first trip to Fancy Farm for about 3/4 of our members, most of whom say they're looking forward to making next year's trip even bigger.

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Fancy Farm, 2010 - By The Numbers

43 - KFTC members volunteering at some point during the event.  

130 - Years the Fancy Farm Picnic has been held.

400 - Fans with KFTC's Vision Statement passed out to the crowd.

720 - Total miles traveled by our crew from Northern Kentucky to get to Fancy Farm and back

750 - "I Voted, But 186,000 Kentuckians Could Not" stickers passed out to  people at the event.

15,000 - Total estimated attendance.

19,000 - Pounds of pork and mutton cooked up for the barbecue (that's very close to a metric ton)

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We'll have more reports from Fancy Farm in the coming days, including reactions from members who came out with us.