St. Louis revels in autumn with festivals, food, and fun

ST. LOUIS – It’s the kind of weekend you dream of in October: blue skies, a breeze, and plenty of people ready to celebrate it. All across the city, it felt like St. Louisans exhaled and outstretched their arms to embrace autumn.

This weekend, the city’s air turned crisp, the light got softer through tree leaves, and suddenly every park had something worth stopping for. After weeks that felt more like leftover summer, fall finally arrived in St. Louis, bringing comfortable sunshine, sweater weather, and crowds ready to celebrate the change in season.

At Tower Grove Park, the sound of live music tangled with the smell of barbecue and sweet cider. Sauce Magazine’s Harvest Festival stretched out beneath the trees with STL food trucks and local vendors lining tower grove’s paths, and kids dancing barefoot in the grass.

Luke Ferrell is one of the Sauce Magazine owners, he said the event serves many purposes.

“It’s to support the community but it’s also to support local businesses we have 30 plus local vendors,” he said.

Ferrell shared most of the vendors don’t have brick and mortars here in St. Louis, so this gives local businesses a chance to make significant money heading into the holiday season. Despite all the hard work from area vendors, it was the weather that did the heavy lifting, with some folks even traveling from around the country to embrace the season this weekend.

Joshua Wallace traveled in from Milwaukee, he said he visits the city 5 or 6 times a year but specifically made the trek down for the festival.

“It’s not blazing hot, like it can get down here. It’s just nice. It’s a good atmosphere to be a part of,” Wallace said.

Not just in south city, but over in Florissant as well. The 28th Annual Fall Festival filled Old Town with the same kind of Fall energy, families painting pumpkins, neighbors sharing stories, the smell of funnel cake drifting between booths. Proof that, sometimes, perfect weather is all it takes to bring a community together, and St. Louis just did what it does best: show up, share space, and enjoy the season.