McEwen, TN

McEwen is a Humphreys County city on U.S. 70, a small Tennessee place whose biggest annual weekend is built around barbecue, Irish roots, and a church fundraiser. The 2020 census counted 1,643 residents. Irish railroad workers helped shape the community in the 1800s, and St. Patrick's Church and School remain at the center of the picnic tradition. The St. Patrick's Irish Picnic began in 1854 and became a true homecoming, with permanent barbecue pits, live music, volunteers, and families returning year after year.

On picnic weekend, the pits become the town's second downtown, with volunteers working, music playing, and old friends finding one another again after a year apart. In 1988, Guinness recognized it as the World's Largest Outdoor Barbecue after a record cook of 16,000 pounds of pork and 3,000 chicken halves. McEwen's local scoop is a Tennessee highway town that turns one parish fundraiser into a full community reunion, with smoke rising over the picnic grounds every summer.