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Kentucky Derby Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kentucky Derby Festival is an annual festival held in Louisville, Kentucky during the two weeks preceding the first Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby. The festival, Kentucky's largest single annual event, started in 1956. The Derby itself began in 1875 at Churchill Downs.
Major events held during the festival include The Great Steamboat Race (featuring the Belle of Louisville), the Pegasus Parade (one of the largest parades in the United States), The Great Balloon Race, and the Derby Marathon and mini-Marathon. In early spring, a Derby Festival Queen and a court of Derby Princesses are selected, typically from various Kentucky colleges. This Royal Court attends official Derby functions to promote the events and graces a featured float in the Pegasus Parade.
The festival's first major event is Thunder Over Louisville, the largest fireworks display in the U.S. and rated as one of the top 100 events in North America. Thunder day begins with a top five air show performing for hours for the crowds of hundreds of thousands of spectators lining the banks of the Ohio River, viewing from inside the city's business district windows and from many boats anchored in the river's current. When night falls, Thunder begins and the crowds' long hours of waiting are rewarded. For thirty spectacular minutes music booms in synchronization to masses of fireworks exploding in the sky and cascading in a waterfall of light from a bridge. The beauty of the show is magnified by the reflections in the river below. Since 1991, Thunder Over Louisville's fireworks have been designed and performed by Zambelli Fireworks International, proudly known as the "First Family of Fireworks".
Each year, an official Derby Festival poster is unveiled and prints are sold to help finance festival events. Artists and photographers who have, over the years, produced the prized posters include Peter Max and Michael Schwab.
Events vary somewhat from year to year but always include numerous athletic events, concerts, fashion shows, wine tastings, luncheons and private parties ranging from backyard barbecues to lavish Derby Eve balls attended by entertainment stars, famed athletes and other persons of note. Lighthearted and laugh inspiring events are also a feature of the festival, such as the Great Bed Races in which local company sponsored employees in themed costumes push beds around a race track, competing for prizes. Recognition is given to Louisville's hardworking restaurant employees with the Run for the Rosé. Waiters and waitress run an obstacle course while carrying trays of glasses filled with red grape juice. Servers finishing with the best time and most red grape juice remaining in the glass win prizes.
 Kentucky Derby Festival 2007 logo.[1] |