Fancy Farm Picnic 2023: Live updates, who’s speaking and how to watch

The 2023 St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic, or just Fancy Farm for short, is kicking off today out in west Kentucky. The picnic is celebrating 143 years of barbecue, picnicking, fundraising and, perhaps the biggest draw in our more modern times, political speaking.

The Lexington Herald-Leader will be out in Graves County bringing you the latest from the picnic, so check out updates on down below. To help get you ready, here’s how to watch the picnic if you can’t make the drive and who’s speaking.

Who is speaking at Fancy Farm?

First up, this is who is confirmed to be speaking on the Republican aisle:

• Attorney General Daniel Cameron - Candidate for governor

• State Sen. Robby Mills - Lieutenant governor candidate

• Former state Rep. Jonathan Shell - Agriculture commissioner candidate

• Garrard County Attorney Mark Metcalf - State treasurer candidate

• Treasurer Allison Ball - Auditor candidate

• Former U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman - Attorney general candidate

• Secretary of State Michael Adams - Running for reelection

• State Rep. Richard Heath

• State Sen. Jason Howell

• U.S. Rep. James Comer

• Auditor Mike Harmon

• Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles

United States Sen. Rand Paul declined to attend this year. Sen. Mitch McConnell appeared Saturday morning at a breakfast event prior to the Fancy Farm picnic, but it’s not confirmed at this point whether the senator will speak at the picnic.

Over on the Democrats’ side we have:

• Gov. Andy Beshear - Seeking reelection

• Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman - Seeking reelection

• Agriculture commissioner candidate Sierra Enslow

• State treasurer candidate Michael Bowman

• State auditor candidate Kim Reeder

• Rep. Pam Stevenson - Attorney general candidate

• Former state Rep. Buddy Wheatley - Secretary of state candidate

We’ve also got the speaking order for the day, if that is of interest.

Schedule of events

The picnic itself begins at 10 a.m. CDT with the political speaking portion beginning in the afternoon around 2 p.m.

If you’re worried about missing out on the festivities, you can watch the livestream from Kentucky Educational Television. The stream will start at 2:30 p.m. EST.

What exactly is Fancy Farm?

What isn’t Fancy Farm? The annual picnic began in 1881 as a church fundraiser for St. Jerome Catholic Church in the town of, you guessed it, Fancy Farm. Former Kentucky Gov. A.B. “Happy” Chandler is credited for popularizing the political speaking portion of the event. Nowadays, if you’re running for office in Kentucky you had better make a stop at Fancy Farm.

Live updates

Our team of reporters will be bringing updates from the picnic when possible, cell service may be a bit uncooperative at times. Follow along with their Twitter feeds:

This story was originally published August 5, 2023 at 7:00 AM.

Andrew Henderson

Lexington Herald-Leader

Andrew is the deputy audience editor for McClatchy’s mid-sized and smaller newsrooms. His home newsroom is the Lexington Herald-Leader and he occasionally writes opinion columns for the paper. He was previously the editor of the Oldham Era and is a graduate of Western Kentucky University. Andrew is from Olive Hill in Carter County.