“I wasn’t at fancy farm last year, because the flooding had just happened,”: Annual Fancy Farm returns this weekend

Graves Co. (WTVQ) — As election day gets closer, so does the annual Fancy Farm Picnic.

This year marks the 143 Fancy Farm picnic at the St. Jerome church in Graves County.

The event has a variety of activities for those in attendance from a fish fry, bingo, a car giveaway and 19,000 pounds of BBQ.

This year, all eyes will be on the governor’s race.

“What I think you’ll see is Andy Beshear and Daniel Cameron crack jokes that attempt to be funny, while also weaving in messaging points,” said political analyst Tres Watson. “Poking and prodding at things that their campaigns are already talking about. Typically do so in a funny way to get a laugh from their side of the attendees, while also driving home the messaging that their trying to run their campaign on.”

Last year, Governor Beshear made a strategic decision not to show.

“I wasn’t at fancy farm last year, because the flooding had just happened,” said Gov. Beshear. “And so you saw the decision that people were making. I chose to be with survivors that had lost everything, that needed help.”

Gov. Behear says he’s looking forward not only to fancy farm, but all of the events that lead up to it.

“They create such excitement. They are, in many ways, kind of old school campaigning.”

The picnic brings in national attention and hundreds of people to the area.

Watson said the picnic is a staple for West Kentucky.

“Especially because it’s so far west in graves county and almost to the Missouri border,” said Watson.

“For west Kentucky particularly, it’s a cornerstone event for them, because they live a long way from Frankfort. They often fell like they’re forgotten. So, this is the one time a year when west Kentucky really feels like the rest of the state really pays attention to them. So for that area of the state particularly, it has importance because they feel like they have the ear of elected officials and the state that day. And they can really have a chance to have their voice heard.”