By MATT PIKE
This summer, to celebrate the World Cup, the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce will partner with Main Street St. Joseph for a first of its kind event in downtown St. Joseph.
The “Wild West Sloppy Joe Fest” will fill the intersection of Felix Street and North 7th Street on July 10th from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, benefitting Main Street St. Joseph.
Chamber of Commerce President Natalie Hawn says the event is completely original to St. Joseph, with no other sloppy joe cook offs around the country that they found.
"We had a lot of folks say why not a tenderloin, well tenderloins are a little more difficult, sloppy joe literally has our name in it, Joe, and it's very Americana, literally when you google it, it says an American sandwich," Hawn says on the KFEQmunnity show. "And we were looking for something that really leaned in on our western feel, because we know the tourists that are starting to look at St. Joseph for World Cup, are tourists that are going to be drawn to us because of Jesse James and Pony Express."
Hawn says while those are things we see every day, but as people are traveling in from Europe, they could be looking for the history of a country, and with it being the 250th anniversary of America, people will be looking for that Americana feel.
Hawn says the festival will lean in as well to the western feel with several different activities, along with the cook off.
"It will have hayrides for the kiddos, we'll have western reenactors, and we encourage you to go sign up," Hawn explains. "It will be a very family friendly event, you can sign up to taste the sloppy joes, you can also sign up if you have a recipe that's a big winner, we'll also have eating competitions, and with the hay rides we might have some fun for the kids, there may be a Sheriff Sloppy Joe that arrests a bank robber off the hay ride."
There will also be pop up vendors and a lasso show during the event, with everything raising money to support Main Street St. Joseph and its support of downtown businesses.
Tickets are available to purchase online and are limited. You can purchase a tasting ticket by clicking HERE or if you would like to enter as a contestant you can click HERE.
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