Fancy Farm returns, Senate President discusses how event has changed over time

LEXINGTON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — A long-time tradition in Kentucky politics returns this weekend; however, the Fancy Farm Picnic may not be arriving with as much fanfare this year.

“You’ve got to be really careful. You don’t generally help yourself a lot by going to a Fancy Farm. But boy, you can surely hurt yourself a lot,” Sen. Robert Stivers told FOX 56.

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Saint Jerome’s Fancy Farm Picnic holds a unique place in Kentucky politics. Since the 1950s, it has represented the kickoff of Kentucky’s political season and brought out national figures from George Wallace to Al Gore. The event can be characterized as a snapshot of old-fashioned campaigning with some ribbing, zingers, and one-liners shared between political figures from across the state.

“It’s not done with vitriol. It’s done by being in a good-natured form. Everybody’s going to have their shirts, everybody’s going to have their placards, they’re going to have their coordinated chants and jeers on both sides. But it’s never- you don’t see fistfights breaking out,” Stivers said.

However, today’s age of social media and soundbites is something Stivers believes may have hurt the event over time. Such as the moment last year when Sen. Mitch McConnell was repeatedly hit with chants of “retire” and boos. The moment was widely shared by the national media, often lacking context for what the event was.

“The booing of Senator McConnell and the things that have happened in the past are all generally done with a good nature,” Stivers said. “You used to have the groups 3 and 400; it would be the equivalent of Fancy Farm in every county, that people would get out and they would listen and get to meet the candidates, and people would see that. Now it’s all on TV and social media,” he later added.

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Stivers believed the classic stump speech was, in some respects, a “lost art” and that today it’s a much different method of campaigning. This year, there’ll still be a full list of speakers, but big names like Gov. Andy Beshear or senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul aren’t currently among them. But as Stivers also noted, it’s an off-year for Kentucky elections without any statewide races to bring those crowds from Pikeville to Paducah to the famed little pavilion in West Kentucky.

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