St. Gabriel International Festival will be Friday, May 30th, and Saturday, May 31st from 5 pm-12 am each night!

This will be the 25th annual St. Gabriel International Festival presented by the parishioners of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church.  The festival is a celebration of the cultural diversity of the parish.  The festival includes a variety of cultural foods, a variety of music and entertainment, a display of the various ministries of the church, $5000 Raffle, Carnival rides and games, booths manned by the sponsors of the festival, and a Beer Garden.  The parishioners prepare the various foods for the festival and are part of the music and entertainment.  The platinum sponsors for the festival are AndyMohr Speedway Chevrolet, Andy Mohr Nissan, and Coca-Cola Consolidated.  

The parish invites the citizens of Greater Indianapolis to come to the festival to enjoy the food, entertainment and rides.  We know that the friendly and compassionate nature of the parishioners of St. Gabriel.  We work hard and express the joy of serving the community of the west-side of Indianapolis.  

The International Festival Committee met on Tuesday, May 13. In our discussions, we found that we have some things that we need help from the parish with:

1) Community Liaison - The liaison will be the contact point for the parish's festival to the neighbors around the church. The liaison will reach to the neighborhood before the festival by leaving a flyer at each house and will organize trash clean up for Saturday and Sunday mornings after the festival.

2) New Festival Sponsorships - Please reach out to business that you do business with in search of new sponsors. Our levels of sponsorship are Platinum -$3000, Gold - $1200, Silver - $600, and Bronze - $300. Please reach out to Ben Bain if you have any leads. Copies of the sponsorship descriptions will be available at the parish office.

3) New international foods would be a great addition to the festival. We would like to bring back German Foods, Egg Rolls, and anything new. Please contact Juan "Charly" Olivera if you are interested in food.

4) We will be recruiting Volunteers. If you have special skills like carpentry, electrical experience, cooking skills, or a bar tending license, please contact Kaitlinn Keith and Giovanna Valladares.

If you use Facebook, please visit our St. Gabriel International Festival Facebook page. We also encourage you to share that with others. As the festival gets closer, we will post the most updated information on that Facebook page.

If you have any questions, please contact Mark Lahr at 317-408-2982 or mlahratc@comcast.net.

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The Festival Planning Committee will begin meeting in late January to plan the event. If you are interested in helping plan the event, please contact Mark Lahr at mlahratc@comcast.net. The committee will meet once per month leading up to the festival and then in late May as a wrap-up meeting. The festival in 2024 was a great success and drew a very large crowd. We will need to add some creative solutions to solve some of the problems created by the crowd. However, this is a good problem to have. The hope is to bring 3-4 more rides from our carnival group to decrease the size of lines. However, that means we need to be more creative with our space.

Need more Volunteers:

It is time to get excited about the upcoming St. Gabriel International Festival. We are starting the planning for a festival that will be bigger than last year. However, we need to have needs from the parish. If you are interested in helping plan the event, please contact Mark Lahr at: mlahratc@comcast.net.

Need Head Cashier and Community Liaison:

We are looking for people to fill the positions of Head Cashier and Community Liaison. Contact Mark Lahr for more information. Need Sponsors: If you know of any possible sponsors, please send that information to Ben Bain. Please email him at BBain56@gamil.com, you can also find the forms in the green boxes that will be located in the office and near the exit doors.

Need more International Menus:

We would also like to add more international flavor to our menu and would like other ethnic foods. If you have any experience with preparing foods that we don’t have on the menu, please contact Juan “Charly” Olivera or Mark Lahr.

Next Meeting:

Tuesday, May 13 @ 7:00pm. Volunteer Meeting in on Tuesday, May 27 @ 7:00pm

Please contact Mark Larh at 317-408-2982 if you are interested. Thank you. In the process of applying for a license.