GAS UP

Gaslight Festival Celbrates Its 54th Year

Deana Karem grew up in Jeffersontown and, thus, grew up with the annual Gaslight Festival held in the downtown square. Her earliest memories of the festival come from the 1970s, when she and her siblings would ride their bikes to the festival to hang out. The whole family would also often attend.

Today, Karem is president and CEO of the Jeffersontown Chamber of Commerce. To say the festival is different today than it was in the ’70s would be quite the understatement.

“It was just a one-day, I think a half-a-day kind of affair,” she says. “It was held out here on Watterson Trail.”

This year’s version of the Gaslight Festival will feature 13 events over an eight-day span, including a golf scramble, 5K run/ walk, balloon glow, the annual Gaslight Festival parade, car show, the vendor event in the square that anchors the festival, and plenty more.

But, as Karem notes, this big festival in a small town started small itself. The festival dates to 1969, when the newly formed Jeffersontown Chamber of Commerce decided to hold a street festival to celebrate local businesses and the community as a whole. Karem says the local Jaycees also held a festival around that time, and it was decided that the following year, the two festivals would merge into one.

It was around this time that the Jeffersontown Historical Society and Restoration Committee had completed a renovation of the old town square that included the installation of gaslights on the streets, to illuminate the square at night and offer a throwback feel to the square. This led to the renaming of the square to Gaslight

Square, and that’s how the Gaslight Festival got its name.

The early festivals were fairly basic events, with the vendor fair and other activities like military displays, political speeches, bus tours through the town to highlight its history, a special church service, and the release of balloons to fly over the city, Karem says.

Evolution of the Gaslight Festival

The Gaslight Festival, now in its 54th year, gradually added events and days over time, and it has grown significantly even in the last 10 to 15 years. In fact, as Karem notes, every Chamber president over the past couple of decades, from Vicky Weber to John Cosby, has added their own signatures to the festival, helping to foster the growth.

Many traditional events have stuck around for years, including the longest-running Gaslight Festival event, the pipe-smoking contest, in which contestants light their pipe, and the contestant who can keep their pipe lit the longest wins. While the popularity of the pipe-smoking contest has waned over the years, Karem estimates there are still usually 20 or more who participate.

“In the old days, they probably had 80 to 100 participants,” she says.

More recent additions include a drive to promote the restaurants on the square, a blood drive, live music, the balloon glow and the 5K. But most importantly, the event continues to be a celebration of community. Karem says the Gaslight Festival will attract some 200,000 people, which is fairly significant for a city with a population of about 31,000.

“This year’s Gaslight Festival crew stands on the shoulders of so many of our business leaders who came before us, and had the vision to start a community and business celebration,” Karem says. “This community celebration has grown over the years to offer