Tags
balloon, balloon fest, Balloon Glimmer, Bed Races, concert, Fest-a-Ville, float, funnel cake, KDF, Kentucky, Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Derby Festival, KFC Yum! Center, Kroger, Louisville, marching band, music, pegasus, Pegasus Parade, Pegasus Parade Preview, UofL
In Louisville the Kentucky Derby is cause for a huge celebration spanning the two weeks before the first Saturday in May. The Kentucky Derby Festival is a crowd pleaser with its numerous events. If one event isn’t your favorite, there is bound to be another that will pique your interest. As this is my last year in Louisville as a student (I hope to come back and visit), I tried to go to as many Derby Festival events as I could.
The first event I went to was the Balloon Glimmer on April 26th. The Glimmer showcases some of the balloons that are going to participate in the bigger Balloon Glow and the Balloon Race. Unfortunately, the evening was too windy for the balloons to inflate for the Glimmer. Even without the Glimmer taking place, walking around the Kroger Fest-a-Ville area was a fun evening. There were numerous options for carnival food, including red velvet funnel cake with cream cheese icing. There was also plenty of people watching to do especially around the small concert going on.
I also went to the Derby Festival Bed Races on April 30th. Getting to the Yum! Center where the races were held was fun as it started pouring while walking from where my friend and I had left the car. After a run through the rain, we made it to the Bed Races. It was interesting to see how well built the beds were. I was expecting much simpler designs since I never seen the event before. There were various types of beds with different ways of steering, but the overall results was a successfully fun event to watch. The action was fast paced and it was always more fun to watch the teams dressed up in costumes knock over the cones racing around the figure eight course.
On May 1st, I went to the Pegasus Parade Preview with two friends. The three of us are in the UofL Marching Band, which means we march in the parade and don’t get to see it. The Parade Preview was a lot of fun as we got to experience the parade as spectators. We also got to interact with the float or balloon sponsors and take home some small goodies. The Parade Preview was targeted for children and there was a lot to engage the children attending the event, but it was still fun for college students as well.
There are plenty of other Kentucky Derby Festival events that I was unable to attend, but that I am sure are just as entertaining as the events I was able to see.
Kroger Fest-a-Ville (at Balloon Glimmer):
The Bed Races:
The Pegasus Parade Preview: