Experience a calendar of festive fun in the Bluegrass Region

Here in the Bluegrass Region, we are a festive bunch. Just give us a good excuse, and we’ll throw a party.

We have festivals honoring the things that make us famous – horses and bourbon – and something that once made us famous - tobacco.

We celebrate our heroes (Daniel Boone) and those who followed in his moccasins (pioneers).

We honor favorite foods (beer cheese, burgoo, BBQ, blackberries and spoonbread) and favorite libations that aren’t bourbon (wine, anyone?)……we even honor the trucks that bring us food).

We celebrate the seasons, arts & crafts and music – take your pick….country, jazz, chamber or maybe a rousing brass band.

And where else will you find a festival dedicated entirely to millstones?

We love to be scared, as witness the emphasis on Halloween, but we also love the warm and cozy feeling that the Yuletide season brings – nearly every Bluegrass community has a holiday parade.

But most of all we love to honor our roots and heritage. Come visit us throughout the year and celebrate the festive best of the Bluegrass Region.

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Festival & Event Calendar:

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April:
 
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If you love to watch world-class equestrians in action, you’ll want to be in Lexington on the last weekend in April for the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Held at the Kentucky Horse Park, this 5-star international competition combines dressage, show jumping and cross-country.

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May:

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Everyone knows about the Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville, held the week preceding the first Saturday in May, but did you know the Bluegrass Region has its own Derby celebration?

Kentucky’s capital city, Frankfort in Franklin County, pulls out all the stops with a full slate of Derby Day activities, from a Pedal for the Posies Bike Race to the Rebecca Ruth Bourbon Ball Challenge.

Whether you’re shopping (for that signature hat) or sipping (a mint julep, of course), you’ll need plenty of fuel to keep you going, so begin the day with a Derby Breakfast Special at participating downtown restaurants.

From hoofbeats to the melodic strains of a classical violin, the month of May brings a symphony of sounds to the Bluegrass Region.

The Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass hasn’t been around as long as the Kentucky Derby, but the event, held in Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill’s Meadowview Barn overlooking the rolling hills and Kentucky River palisades, has developed quite the following.

Chamber aficionados make a musical pilgrimage to Mercer County every spring to spend the weekend with musicians from New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. This festival has even been broadcast on PBS.

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June:

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From chamber music to brass bands is a short one county hop away.

Boyle County’s Great American Brass Band Festival is guaranteed to warm the cockles of the heart of John Philip Sousa lovers, fans of “The Music Man’s” Professor Harold Hill, and anyone else who loves the pomp and ceremony of brass bands.

But it’s also a favorite of those who love other musical genres translated into brass. You’ll hear hip hop and big band, mariachi and New Orleans-style, pop and funk in all their “brassy” glory.

In addition to the music, there’s a picnic on the lawn at Danville’s Centre College, a downtown parade and plenty of activities for kids.

You won’t be able to stop humming, “I love a parade” after seeing this one.

Nothing goes better with wine than cheese – even if it is beer cheese. You can enjoy both in the Bluegrass Region this summer.

If it’s June in Nicholasville, it’s time for the Kentucky Wine & Vine Fest, an annual event at the Jessamine County Fairgrounds.

A celebration of wines from across the commonwealth, the festival offers tastings, arts and crafts vendors, food trucks, and special events such as a Run for Merlot.

Many consider Jessamine County’s Wine & Vine Fest Kentucky’s premier wine event.

Now for the cheese. Bluegrass Region residents and visitors alike know that June means Clark County’s most famous product, beer cheese…..more specifically, it means the Beer Cheese Festival.

Held in historic downtown Winchester the second Saturday in June, it’s the only festival in the world dedicated to the celebration of beer cheese.

Professional beer cheese vendors will be on hand to delight festival-goers with their creative versions, and amateur beer cheese makers will take part in a competition to see if they have the right stuff.

Clark County may be the only place that doesn’t mind having its festival described as “cheesy.”

And Then There’s Lavender……

Most people think of lavender as just a beautiful, sweet-smelling plant that’s good for using in soaps and lotions. But did you know you can use lavender in food and drink as well?

Visitors have plenty of opportunity to learn at The Kentucky Castle’s Lavender Festival in Woodford County. Over the festival’s three days, there will be an opportunity to take a lavender cocktail class, enjoy a lavender afternoon tea and sit down to the Lavender Festival Dinner.

The good eats keep coming in June with Soulfeast Week in Lexington. This 10-day event is a celebration of Black culinary culture in the Bluegrass.

Black chefs and farmers are recognized, and restaurants get in on the fun with Lexington’s Black Restaurant Week where participating establishments will offer a unique, off-menu entrée at a special price.

While you won’t go hungry at Lexington’s Railbird Festival, it’s music that’s the drawing card here.

In racing parlance, a railbird is someone who hangs on the rail to get a better view of the horses as they break from the starting gate.

In this case, avid music lovers will be hanging on the infield rail at the Red Mile Race Track to get as close as possible to headliners in such musical genres as country, rock, Bluegrass, folk, soul and indie.

In between acts, you can sample some pretty good bourbon, courtesy of vendors set up around the track.

Looking for something different?  How about a serving of heritage - Lincoln County style? You’ll find it at the Hustonville Heritage Days where you can jam to live bands, marvel at motorcycle and car shows, or if you’re into participating and not just watching, try your hand (literally) at tossing hay bales or driving nails.

There will be no lack of food trucks to keep hunger at bay or vendors for finding that special souvenir.

Speaking of food trucks, did you know that in Anderson County they have their own special day beginning in June and continuing through August?

Food Truck Fridays are a popular summer attraction for locals and visitors alike. Whether it’s Mexican, barbecue or seafood, ice cream or wine and beer, there’s a truck to suit every taste.

Also in June, Lawrenceburg hosts its annual “A Day at the Park,” where food trucks, live music, carnival rides and vendor booths are a nod to those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer,” and at the same time help to raise autism awareness.

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July:

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From blackberries to championship golf to crafts from master artisans, July is a banner month in the Bluegrass Region.

When you hear blackberries, what do you think…..pie, cobbler, pudding, wine? How about an annual festival in the town of Carlisle in Nicholas County?

Every July, Carlisle’s downtown takes on the appearance of a carnival with rides, live music, vendors, car shows, fireworks, even a Blackberry Queen.

It all began in 1946 as a way of honoring World War II vets on the Fourth of July. It eventually morphed into the peacetime Blackberry Festival – after all, the luscious berry is the commonwealth’s state fruit.

You may or may not find the reason for the festival in edible form, but we can promise other Kentucky specialties such as country ham, fried chicken and biscuits.

Football spring training is over and it’s still several months until we can even start thinking about basketball. Not to worry. Sports lovers know that July means one thing in the Bluegrass Region – the Annual Kentucky Championship (formerly the Barbasol) at Jessamine County’s Champions Course at the Keene Trace Golf Club.

The heavily attended tournament is one of the official stops on the PGA Tour, so get your tickets early.

Berea in Madison County is known for its world class folk art and craft tradition, and there is no better time to experience it than during the Berea Craft Festival.

Dubbed “Magic in the Mountains,” due to its location at Indian Fort in the bucolic Berea College Forest, it’s the place to find the work of more than 100 artists and artisans from around the country.

This is the closest thing to a Renaissance Fair to be found in the Bluegrass Region. Wandering minstrels provide the soundtrack and local vendors provide the food and drink. But it’s the art that has lured visitors to Berea’s premier festival for nearly four decades.

Who says summer school is boring? Certainly not the organizers of Berea’s Festival of Learnshops who have put together a cool curriculum taught by some of the commonwealth’s best artists.

Forget biology…..instead, sign up for broom-making or blacksmithing. Instead of English literature, how about a course in eco-dying.

The Festival of Learnshops is your ticket to a host of mediums, including photography, printmaking, pyrography, jewelry making and stained glass. Go ahead and register……you’ll never feel the same about summer school again.

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August:
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Berea completes its trifecta of summer festivals the third weekend in August with the Celtic Festival.

In a nod to the Old Sod, the festival is a Madison County gathering of musicians and singers who bring traditional, authentic grassroots Celtic music to delighted audiences. For those who want to delve a little deeper, there are also lectures, workshops and theater performances.

We’re betting that the early pioneers to the Bluegrass Region did more than their share of sitting around smoking the region’s rich native tobacco.

This month has festivals in remembrance of both the pioneers and the tobacco.

Don’t be surprised if on the third weekend of every August, you find groups of buckskin-clad frontiersmen and women in gingham dresses roaming around Old Fort Harrod State Park in Mercer County.

You haven’t been trapped in a time warp – you are experiencing Pioneer Days, a free multi-day festival held at Kentucky’s oldest settlement in Harrodsburg.

Modern day pioneers have access to food vendors, live music, a 5K race and fun activities. Just don’t get too rowdy, or you might find yourself a victim of the dunking booth.

The U.S. Surgeon General may warn Americans about the hazards of smoking, but in Garrard County, they haven’t forgotten their roots.

For four decades, tobacco was the economic driver of the farming community of Lancaster, a fact that is recognized by the annual observance of the Garrard Rural Heritage Tobacco Festival.

Smoking is not encouraged and no tobacco spitting is allowed at the family-friendly event which features carnival rides, food vendors, live music, a parade and a talent show.
 

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September:
 

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You’ll find a Bluegrass Region bonanza if you visit in September, with everything from a Festival of the Horse to a Daniel Boone Festival; a Roots and Heritage Festival to a lively Fall Festival.

However, for those whose tastebuds determine their festival schedule, prepare to be dazzled with homages to barbecue, burgoo and spoonbread.

Who doesn’t love a good Fall Festival? We sure do, and one of the best is in the charming town of Midway in Woodford County.

Ranked as one of Kentucky’s top festivals, it has offered a celebration of community and culture for half a century. There is such a range of activities along the railroad tracks in the town center that many don’t know where to start.

Should it be the Arts & Crafts Marketplace (where legendary Tater Knob Pottery is a staple), and its eclectic collection of local workmanship?

Or maybe unique demonstrations such as the one showing how to make sorghum? Children’s activities? Live music (16 hours of it from Kentucky’s best bands)?  Food vendors offering everything from Cajun to Filipino?

Don't worry…..over the two-day event, you’ll have time to sample everything.

How about an entire festival devoted to the region’s equine heritage? Scott County has one with its popular Festival of the Horse. The Colt and Filly Review Parade and Grand Parade of Horses are definite crowd-pleasers, but this festival offers non-horse activities as well over its three-day schedule.

Downtown Georgetown is alive with vendor booths (pick up everything from horsey apparel to home décor); carnival rides; food trucks; live music; BBQ stations; Fireman’s Chili Cook-off….even a pop-up beer garden serving local and craft brews.

Come “horse around” at Scott County’s Festival of the Horse.

History and heritage are important in the Bluegrass Region, even in its festivals. If you doubt it, just be in Winchester over Labor Day Weekend when Clark County throws a party for intrepid explorer Daniel Boone.

Old Dan’l likely would be surprised at the more than 150 booths offering food and arts and crafts (he might even see a few replicas of his coonskin cap), but the live music would surely set his toes a tappin’.

Heritage is so important in Lexington’s African-American community that it’s included in the festival’s name.

The Roots & Heritage Festival has been celebrating cultural diversity for more than three decades. The festival’s colorful pageantry has earned it recognition from the Southeast Tourism Society as a Top 20 Event in the Southeast.

Taking place in the city’s historic East End, the event features live music, food, a parade and a marketplace.

Food, food and more food…..

Taste the flavors of the Bluegrass Region all through September. In Boyle County, it’s barbecue, while in Anderson County, burgoo has earned its own festival.

It’s an ode to ‘cue when Danville hosts the three-day Kentucky State BBQ Festival. Celebrity pitmasters serve up their creative takes on pulled pork, ribs and brisket, while amateur competitions in both preparing and eating BBQ always make for a good time.

Bourbon tastings and music complement the ‘cue, so put on a bib and start finger lickin’.

Anderson County sure does love its burgoo, as witnessed by the fact that the hearty stew is the focus of the county’s longest running festival.

For the uninitiated, burgoo is a southern cousin of Brunswick Stew and dates back to Kentucky’s frontier days when harried housewives used anything their husbands could shoot or trap to make dinner for the family.

Today’s recipe is a bit more refined – most often calling for a combination of pork, beef and chicken, corn, carrots, lima beans, onions and celery.

During Lawrenceburg’s festival, pots of burgoo sizzle; musicians tune up; artists display their work, and a good time is had by all.

If there’s one dish as synonymous with the Bluegrass Region as burgoo, it’s spoonbread, and here, we all know that means Madison County – specifically Boone Tavern in Berea.

You can eat the delicious dish – a hybrid of cornbread and a souffle – any day of the week in the Tavern’s dining room, but you must wait until September to experience the festival.

Along with entertainment and car shows, carnival rides and balloon glows, there are ample opportunities to taste the signature dish.
 

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October:
 

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October is a scary time to be in the Bluegrass Region, and it has nothing to do with the weather which is usually beautiful this time of the year.

What’s scary are the witches, goblins, werewolves, vampires and assorted other creatures running amok during Halloween. Things are especially hairy and scary in two counties – Fayette and Harrison.

Scarefest in Lexington has been described as “the sinister side of Comic Con,” where all of your favorite monsters take to the streets. From the Twilight gang to the aliens of Star Trek, mere mortals can rub elbows with their wickedest celluloid faves.

Cynthiana in Harrison County takes first prize, however, when it comes to pulling out all the stops at Halloween. No surprise considering it’s the hometown of the creator of TV’s “The Walking Dead.”

Whether it’s a street festival for Witches’ Day Out, haunted house tours (complete with rattling skeletons in the closet) or elaborate lawn tableaus at both businesses and residences, Cynthiana’s Halloween Festival has helped make it Buzz Feed’s choice for Kentucky’s Number One Fall Destination.

Not everything is ghoulish in the Bluegrass in October. Some things are positively benign. Take millstones, for example. Ever since Madison County resident William “Speedy” Denny started collecting millstones of varying size and shape, they have become a symbol of Richmond.

Forty-five millstones, ranging in weight from 200 pounds to 4,000 pounds, are on display in a half-acre park in the center of town, where every October a festival is held in their honor. Did we tell you we will celebrate anything?

And as far as the folks in Bourbon County are concerned, there is nothing remotely scary about a majestic Thoroughbred, except for maybe the speed at which it can cover a furlong.

For that reason, the county celebrates its equine superstars in the annual Legends of Bourbon County Festival.

Legends from Secretariat at Claiborne Farm to Curlin at Hill ‘n Dale Farm at Xalapa  have had their special day at this festival.
 

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December:
 

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Okay, we know that most places do a lot of celebrating during the festive holiday season. But here in the Bluegrass Region, we throw in a touch of history.

Main Street in Stanford in Lincoln County was part of the original Wilderness Road, a designation that is recognized on the first Saturday in December.

That’s when the town welcomes visitors to “Christmas on the Wilderness Road,” with open houses at historical sites such as the L & N Depot, Logan’s Fort and the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, the oldest log church still in existence along the Road.

All are beautifully decorated for the holidays, and the weekend culminates with Stanford’s Christmas Parade.

The small college town of Wilmore in Jessamine County has a Christmas straight out of a Hallmark movie with its Old- Fashioned Christmas and Music Festival.

Residents throw wide their doors for open houses; the community tree is illuminated and sounds of the season are performed in concert.
 

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