SetonFest Grew From a 1981 Picnic Into Carmel’s Carnival

SetonFest 2026 filled three nights on the St. Elizabeth Seton campus in Carmel from July 23 through July 25, with gates at 6 p.m. and lights out at 11. That run landed 45 years after a new parish put on a picnic and discovered it had a festival.

The 2026 bill was the full modern kit: live bands, food tents, a beer tent, games, rides, inflatables, and a casino. Saturday added My Yellow Rickshaw from 7 to 11 p.m. and fireworks at 9:30 p.m.

SetonFest 2026 Packed Three Nights on Haverstick Road

The grounds sit at 10655 Haverstick Road, at 106th Street in southeastern Carmel. Listings for the 2026 weekend put the same hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Each night ran five hours.

The band’s own event page treated Saturday as the closer and promised rides and games for kids, a casino for adults, and fireworks for everyone at 9:30 p.m. That 9:30 cue is the only fireworks time on the record for 2026. In 2024, co-chairman Scott Cunningham’s crew described Friday and Saturday shows as among the largest in Hamilton County. Those are two different years, and 2026 should not inherit the second night without a fresh listing.

THE 2026 NIGHTS

Thursday has long been the ride-heavy open. In 2022 the parish sold $20 all-you-can-ride wristbands at the office so families could skip the window. That price is a 2022 figure, not a 2026 rate, but the shape of the weekend has held: rides first, bands later, fireworks on the last night that lists them.

The First Picnic Was July 26, 1981

Bishop Raymond Gallagher issued the decree that created St. Elizabeth Seton Parish on July 1, 1981. The parish opened with 254 households. Twenty-five days later it threw a picnic.

The parish’s own timeline is blunt about what that meal became. It records a first parish picnic on July 26, 1981, “now known as Seton Fest.” The land at 106th and Haverstick was bought the same year. Groundbreaking followed on October 9, 1983. Bishop William Higi dedicated the church on October 20, 1985.

FROM PICNIC TO CAMPUS

1. July 1, 1981: Bishop Gallagher establishes the parish with 254 households.
2. July 26, 1981: First parish picnic, later called Seton Fest.
3. 1981: Parish buys the corner of 106th Street and Haverstick Road.
4. October 9, 1983: Groundbreaking.
5. October 20, 1985: Church building dedicated.
6. July 23 to 25, 2026: Three-night SetonFest with rides, casino, and Saturday fireworks.

Father Leo Piguet was the first pastor and served 17 years, through 1998. The picnic is older than the nave. Families ate on the lawn before they had a church to walk into after dinner.

A 33-Acre Parish Grew Up Around That Picnic

The campus now covers 33 acres along Blue Woods Creek, laid out in a farm-cluster of brick buildings, a pond, and a grotto. The parish history page, updated in 2026, says the community that started with 254 households has more than 6,833 parishioners now on the rolls.

SETON ON THE GROUND

• 1981 start: 254 households and a picnic on July 26.
• 2026 rolls: more than 6,833 parishioners.
• Campus: 33 acres at 10655 Haverstick Road.
• Nave: 850 seats, plus 50 added in 2012, for 900.

The Commons, the indoor gathering hall, can hold 850 people standing. A 2002 parking lot added 440 spaces and a drive out to 106th Street. The Parish Life Center (2005) put a gym and classrooms on the east side. A Family Room expansion in 2016 tied that building to the church and gave the Knights of Columbus a hall for breakfasts and fish fries.

That is the physical reason a carnival fits here. The lawn, the lots, and the hall were built as the picnic outgrew blankets.

Where the Festival Money Goes After Closing Time

SetonFest has never been only a night on the rides. In 2018, communications coordinator Emily McCaffery said the parish tithed almost $500,000 a year to local and outreach ministries, with some festival revenue also going to Haiti assistance. That dollar figure is from 2018. The map of where Seton still sends help is current.

The ministries page lists regular tithes to two sister parishes: St. Martha in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, the only Catholic church in its county in Appalachia, and St. Genevieve in Duval, Haiti. Haiti gets medical and dental missions, school and clinic support, a sewing program, a clean water program, and those tithes. St. Genevieve is in a country the parish describes as one of the poorest and most densely populated in the Americas, still carrying damage from a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in 2010.

OUTREACH TIED TO THE PARISH

• Haiti mission: Sister parish St. Genevieve in Duval, with yearly medical trips and humanitarian visits.
• Appalachia: Sister parish St. Martha in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, supported by tithes and youth mission visits.
• Loaves and Fishes: Food service with Merciful H.E.L.P. at the Matthew 25 Center, answering a call to feed people in Hamilton County.
• Thanksgiving Baskets: Food for over 100 families in Hamilton County each November.
• St. Vincent de Paul: Food, clothing, furniture, and emergency rent and utility help through the Noblesville center.
• Family Promise: Shelter partnership that helps homeless families find housing again.

The parish counts over 30 ministries in all, from adoration and small groups to Caring Hands sewing for hospital maternity wards. Festival cash is one feed into that machine. The other is the weekly collection counted by a 25-person money team.

Sister Parishes in Haiti and Kentucky

Fr. Antony Jean-Baptiste, who later served at Seton, has said parishioners used to visit St. Genevieve and supported him while he was in seminary. The Haiti ministry still asks for volunteers with or without medical training. St. Martha’s relationship is quieter: regular tithes and youth trips into a Baptist county that has one Catholic church.

A carnival with a beer tent can look like a party that ends at 11. On this campus it is also how a suburban parish keeps two poorer churches on the books.

Fireworks at 9:30, Then a Casino Inside

The 2026 closer was a familiar Carmel mix: kids on rides, adults at tables, a band on the grass, then shells in the sky. My Yellow Rickshaw, a regular on this stage since at least 2018, had the Saturday slot. The casino stayed on the 2026 feature list, as it has when the festival moved tables inside the church in earlier years.

We’ve got, you know, 80- and 90-year-old that are out there dancing, getting down with the music, all the way down to toddlers. To see that spectrum of family engagement, that’s really what it’s all about. That’s what really makes it rewarding for us.

Scott Cunningham, SetonFest co-chairman, 2024

Cunningham was talking on a Friday night in 2024, not in 2026, but the age span is the point organizers keep making. The parish account’s 2022 posts thanked volunteers and called the weekend the last summer bash, with tents up days ahead and rides rolling in behind them. The public conversation on X around the 2026 dates was thin. The work still looks like a volunteer haul: money counters, food tents, ride tickets, and a fireworks cue at 9:30.

Admission has been free in past years, with ride tickets sold on site. Everyone has been told they can come, parish or not. That open gate is how a church picnic became a Carmel night out without changing the address.

The All Saints Fall Festival Comes on Oct. 24

SetonFest’s 2026 carnival is over. The next time the parish is advertising a public festival on its front page is the All Saints Fall Festival on October 24, 2026, starting at 3 p.m. That is a Saturday afternoon on the same Haverstick campus, not a three-night midway.

The July event remains the big summer gather: three nights, five hours each, rides and a casino, and a 9:30 p.m. fireworks shot when the listing names one. Forty-five years after 254 households packed a picnic, more than 6,833 parishioners still have a lawn that can hold a carnival.

October 24 is the next date on that lawn. The picnic’s descendants will show up in daylight this time, without the Ferris-wheel hours, unless the parish prints a new midway bill.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did SetonFest in Carmel start?

The parish timeline dates the first picnic to July 26, 1981, twenty-five days after Bishop Raymond Gallagher’s July 1 decree created St. Elizabeth Seton. That picnic is the event the parish now calls Seton Fest, and the 2026 carnival sat 45 years later on the same property.

Where is SetonFest held each year?

It is held on the campus of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, 10655 Haverstick Road, Carmel, Indiana 46033, in the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana. The grounds cover 33 acres at 106th Street and Haverstick in southeastern Carmel, with parking added behind the church in 2002.

Who was the first pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton in Carmel?

Father Leo Piguet was named first pastor in 1981 and served 17 years, until 1998. Father Ted Rothrock followed until the summer of 2020. The church building those pastors used was dedicated on October 20, 1985, four years after the first picnic.

Does SetonFest support ministries beyond the parish?

Yes. The parish still names sister-parish tithes to St. Genevieve in Duval, Haiti, and St. Martha in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, plus local work such as Thanksgiving Baskets for over 100 Hamilton County families. In 2018, coordinator Emily McCaffery said Seton tithed almost $500,000 a year to local and outreach ministries.