We haven't been to the fair in awhile. So when they announced the Music Line up and Vertical Horizon was playing..I had to go. I admit, I was a little nervous going downtown with a big crowd. I can tell you that the Security was Top Notch. There was police from every department you could think of. There were EMS to help as it was very toasty today (Saturday). We jumped on Metrolink, walked the grounds. Caught the Airshow and then the concert. The crowd was fun.. and the new Arch grounds were beautiful read more

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I've been to Fair St. Louis for many years in the last decade. A lot of them were fun, but at the end of the day my thoughts were mixed. Allow me to break it down: Food: Its usually the same every year, with all those typical carnival food booths with the windows and all. But in the last few years, I think their selection has expanded. Seems they add a twist each year with some sort of new food. Food isn't cheap, so take plenty of $. On a personal note, I found the cheap sno-cones to be very satisfying especially in humid weather! As far as beer, its mostly if not 100% Budweiser as they are one of the main sponsors of Fair St. Louis. In other words, craft beer is very hard to come by. 3/5 Transportation: When it was at the Arch grounds, it was easy Metrolink access, not too far from the area. With it being at Forest Park's Art Hill now, it is still easy Metrolink access but it requires walking, bigtime. If you are taking light rail, allow yourself plenty of time because you would have to walk quite-a-ways from the Forest Park/Debaliviere station to Art Hill. It gets tiring, for people like me who are out of shape! Yes, there is parking, but from what I hear - its expensive. You can also ride your bike, which I would imagine is cheaper. 2/5 Music: As far as music, they usually have many national big-time acts (or what I call, B-and C-listers). One year it was Cyndi Lauper, then it would be Kool and the Gang, Counting Crows, and so on. Usually the lineup is set like this: a rap/hip-hop/soul kind of day, country one day and the third day, pop and rock. But not necessarily in that order. This year (2017) they had Akon, 3 Doors Down and Jake Owen headlining different nights, with bands such as Eve 6 and Sister Hazel at the bottom. Sometimes they would have an up-and-coming musical act as well. What I do like is that they usually book acts that weren't high on my priority list, but its fun to see them anyway - especially for FREE. I can't complain one bit about that. 4/5 Other entertainment: The fair has other things from the past to present such as skiing and air shows, and one year they had one of the Wallendas walk atop a high wire over the lake in Forest Park. These are all great; however, I feel this is still not enough to satisfy one that always craves something. 3/5 Fireworks: Always a winner to me, no matter what location. You'll get 10-15 minutes non-stop of spectacular fireworks. An easy 5/5. Location: Arch grounds vs. Forest Park? I'd go back to having it at the Arch. Unfortunately I don't know when that will happen, if it will. It seems that the city comes together more when it is closer to downtown and Laclede's Landing. I am aware that the Jefferson Memorial grounds will be getting a nice facelift soon, so I don't see it down the road anytime soon. Forest Park is okay, as I am also aware of its iconic status in St. Louis. read more

I stopped by Fair during my weekend in St. Louis. Hailing from Cincinnati, when we hear "Fair", we think Ferris wheels, livestock competitions, hayrides and the like. You won't find that here. Fair St. Louis is what we call a street festival. While not what I expected, Fair St. Louis delivered what any standard street festival would: live music, games of chance, and aisles upon aisles of food vendors. All of this takes place under the Gateway Arch. It was refreshing to see a festival on some green space, but the crowds...oh the crowds! It was much too congested for my liking, especially after the Cardinals game let out and a mass herd walked over from the stadium. At the end of each night, a fireworks show is presented for 30 minutes. People are stacked up along the river all day for front-row seating.I found a perfect spot in Citygarden. It had a beautiful view of the show, the Arch and the Old Courthouse. read more

Fair Saint Louis - Cheesecake on a stick. Find it at Fair St. Louis - Festivals Near Me - Saint Louis, Missouri

I feel sorry for the organizers of FSL because two critical elements of the experience are outside of their control: *The weather: this year a 5-star low 80's, low-humidity kind of day, but many years hot and terribly humid; *The crowd: well-behaved in the daytime and near the Arch, but at night and on the Eads Bridge, not so much. The air show this year was pretty good, for lovers of air shows: Liberty Parachute Team, Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, a helicopter that flies upside down, and more. The vendors were ok, though all fairs like this feature food served in styrofoam and paper and foil, and the business model probably makes the seemingly high prices necessary. In the old days, I didn't mind paying a lot for a Bud or Bud Lite, when I knew my $ were supporting an American corporation that was community-minded. These days, it irritates me to think of dollars flowing to Leuven, Belgium. I actually contemplated walking over to Flying Saucer for some real American beer. Anyway, if you go for an air show or concert or fireworks, find a way to take a chair, which you will wish for after about an hour of sitting on the lawn. You will want to support the vendors, but your better food choices will be found within a 15-minute walk. Take the MetroLink, especially if you're arriving from the Illinois side, it's so much easier. read more

We were visiting from out of town and Fair St. Louis was talked up. We decided to give it a try. It was located in Forest Park this year due to construction by he Arch. Beautiful location but I didn't see any air shows. We went July 3 and the kids area was set up but bot staffed. Apparently it was too wet to open the booths? Our kids were really disappointed and we had to pass 3 hours of time before the fireworks began. The funnel cake was good and we tried a STL beer. Music was fine. Maybe a tad too country for my liking. Fun to people watch though. This is a free event but parking was $20. read more

Fair Saint Louis - Kids waiting for the fireworks to start. - Festivals Near Me - Saint Louis, Missouri

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Awesome fireworks under the Arch for July 4th, with free music, airshows and more! And its all free and has been for over 30 years! We haven't lived here for 20 years but used to come here for the festivities when we did. We loved it then and now. And did I mention free? Also, you can't beat the view of the city from 600+ feet in the air too! See the fireworks here: http://youtu.be/LYPkaAzCSYg read more

So every year a couple of days around the Fourth of July there is the great and spectacular Fair St. Louis. If you have lived here for over a year then most likely you would have heard of it as well as lived anywhere within, oh say, 50 miles give or take. Fair St. Louis is a nice large celebration that St. Louis puts on to celebrate the city and our nation's birthday. Fair St. Louis has a whole lot of things to offer. Going to the riverfront during always gives you something to do. There are plenty of things to eat, most of all, the lovely carnival foods. You can never have enough funnel cake. read more

Great fireworks show one of the best. They need to give serious thought to the exit, several thousand people exiting through one narrow exit causing a massive choke point talk about a massive terrorist opportunity I hate the thought of it. Fix it St. Louis ! read more

Due to construction downtown this year they moved Fair St Louis to Forest Park.....One of the best ideas St Louis has had. I went with a group of friends. We parked our cars at a friends work lot. We hopped on our bikes and rode 5 miles to Forest Park. Thank you St Louis for the bike lanes. We bike valet our bikes with volunteers from Trailnet and strolled the rest of the way to the Fair. We were a little disappointed that the food vendors were only carnival type, we were really looking forward to some food trucks. We settled on gyros, which were overflowing with sauce, meat and stuffing. They were amazing. We brought a blanket and spread out to listen to Thompson Square and The Band Perry. They were just okay. I was really there for the food and fireworks. HOLY COW. The sky was full of red, whites, yellows, blues and many designs. I wish they would leave the Fair at Forest Park...... It felt homey and not like a concrete pad. read more

I can't believe there are some bad reviews on this... I came in from Dallas to go to this FREE festival. How can you comlain about something your city gave you FOR FREE? I saw the Counting Crows this year & although the clouds were rolling in, it didn't ever rain and had a great evening. Only bad thing was the wait to get into the arch was hours long so we didn't get to go. Maybe next time! read more

They eliminated the air show! They cut the number of days down! What's the deal? They complain that not enough people attend this, but what's to see and do? The new company that is responsible for the event is not pulling their weight! read more

Fair St. Louis July 3, 2016 I had planned to give the fair a look-see this year. July 2. It poured. July 3. It poured. Ok. No one controls the weather. And the weather has been wet, wet, wet. Got it. But then, weather underground predicted that there would be little to no rain from 6 PM to closing. A friend wanted to take a look as well. So....we took the 50 minute trip into St Louis. Paid $20 for parking at a "close proximity lot" which was actually a 35 minute walk to the fair site. No shuttles. The fair....maybe with better weather there would have been much more to it, but I have seen parish/church fairs/picnics that are far grander. There were two virtually identical food midways....reasonably good variety....expensive but that is expected. For $17 I got a tasty gyros sandwich and quite good lemonade (with refills for $3). We sampled some ribs...very nice. We had some disappointing snow cones (billed as Hawaiian Ice but without the cream it was not). There were some sales set ups: one for a car dealer, one for a bathroom refitter and one for a line of veggie entrees. Very nice people who we found rather interesting. There was also a human slingshot "ride" which was fun to watch for a while. Two couples...a mom and teenage son each...were hilarious and a little touching. Nice to see kids who clearly like (as well as love I suspect) their moms. AND THAT IS ABOUT ALL THERE WAS. There was a band (Eddie Money) on the main, and only stage. I have no idea who they were playing to but it was not to me, my friend or anyone near us as we waited two hours for the fireworks. Money has his fans but as the only entertainment.....not enough...not nearly enough. And then came the Fireworks....disaster.....The cloud cover was so thick and so low lying that the rockets went up and then disappeared. There were some very interesting looking clouds now tinted with color......lots of bangs, pops and fizzes but very little sparkle and no WOW! After 5 minutes we joined thousands of others in heading back to our cars...a long walk if you recall. The finale....we got to "see" it.....or rather to see where it was supposed to be but now because of all the smoke the cloud cover was even thicker and the finale was nothing but noise. My final observation was that if the shows start to finish time was the one they planned on (in other words I am presuming they did not cut it short), then that is really bad news. A 15 minute show given the work it takes to get to the site and the long wait..booooo! Did the pyrotechnic designers and engineers NOT know that their show would disappear into the overcast? I can't believe that. They opened the fair late on Sunday because of bad weather. I suggest that a warning about the show might have shrunk the crowd a bit but it would have been a great good will gesture. My friend told me today that this goes down as his worst July 4 experience. A little girl walking with her parents just off to our side as we trudged back to the car after pondering a bit had this observation: "Those were the fireworks?!....they weren't very pretty..." Exactly. read more

After more than 10 years of being away from St. Louis, we decided to give Fair St. Louis a visit on our first Independence Day back in the area. We got down there about 3pm on the 4th and stayed til after 9pm. Prior to going down there next year, this is what you should know about Fair St. Louis: Pros: The Kids Zone has some free activities and crafts for children to do. The air show is always an entertaining event. Cons: *If it's extremely hot (and on the day we went, it was about 105 during the day), be aware that there are not any additional shaded areas provided. *Along those lines, water fountains and/or misters were scarce. Not nearly enough water options are provided for the number of people in attendance. *Besides the Kids Zone and a few limited food vendors, there is nothing going on, and really nothing interesting to do. Honestly, if you don't live close by, the trip is not worth it. The organization of the entire event is quite poor, and Fair St. Louis really spotlights why Downtown St. Louis is so dead and isn't the hot-spot that we wish it was. * There was no signage or organization for parking. Judging by the nearly-empty parking lot adjacent to the Landing, not too many people even knew that there was parking available there. * This is more of a general St. Louis issue, but after living in NY and LA, the lack of smoking laws in this area are embarrassing. At an event expecting thousands of people, there should be specific smoking areas put aside. I have no problems with someone else smoking, but if we're sitting on the Arch lawn watching a show, my 16 month-old daughter should not have to put up with smoke being blown in her face the entire time. Why is St. Louis so behind on this? Are we not yet aware of the dangers of second-hand smoke? Specific smoking areas need to be put up; not only here, but everywhere in St. Louis. * Pedestrian street-crossing needed some serious organization. It was certainly not for lack of man-power because there were police just hanging out at multiple locations. At places where there aren't traffic lights available, there needs to be someone directing the flow of traffic. * This is the big one; the fireworks show. We found a spot on the lawn at about 7:30pm in preparation for the 9:30pm show. We expected it to be a crowded place, so that wasn't the issue. When thousands of people are laying down chairs and blankets, there needs to be walkways kept open. As people attempt to walk through the sea of blankets to find their families, grab a beer or run to the restroom, they end up stepping where they shouldn't if there isn't another option available. As the crowds cram under the Arch, people start putting down chairs on the concrete path; completely blocking traffic. What happens if there is an emergency? Paths need to stay free from blankets and chairs. Furthermore, the concert gets out at the same time the fireworks start. As those of us that have found places hours prior are just beginning to enjoy the show, the concert-goers that were at the front of the stage leave for the exits. Therefore, instead of watching fireworks, we get to watch a steady stream of clearly-inebriated individuals leave the park. Oh joy! As the frustration built, we decided that finishing the show just wasn't worth it and went home. Two things need to be put into place here. Like I said before, walkways need to be free of seated people, blankets, and chairs. Also, there needs to be guidelines in place that state something like "if you choose to be at the stage for the concert, you must stay there for the fireworks show". That may be prohibitive, but something needs to change so others' experiences aren't ruined. Figure it out. * Leaving the park, the traffic direction was again awful. In a situation where thousands of people are leaving an event at one time, police need to be directing traffic. This is done at other events in the area. How is this one any different? We do not foresee coming back to Fair St. Louis. We will certainly look at other options next year. read more

i am going to the noon air show and need to know where handicap parking is? can anyone give me any imfo