Back to Basics

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Since 1991, bourbon enthusiasts from around the world have descended upon Bardstown—otherwise known as the Bourbon Capital of the World— for the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival. With the event moving into its fourth decade, those attending the sold-out 2021 festival Sept. 17-19 will notice a big change.

According to Randy Prasse, the fesival president, gone are the county fair-type attractions and events that had little to do with Kentucky’s favorite spirit.

“It’s about the bourbon and those who make it,” he said. “There’re so many other things that we revised and, necessarily, had to eliminate from the festival because it didn’t focus on the bourbon. The bouncy houses, the funnel cakes, the overall quality of the food, the car show—a lot of those things that were nice to have, nice local feeling—but they don’t move the needle the way we needed it to move.”

It wasn’t an arbitrary decision. The festival board of directors conducted a survey of distillers and bourbon enthusiasts following the 2019 festival, and the results were conclusive.

“The distilleries said they want new consumers, bourbon enthusiasts—not just people who are looking for something to do,” Prasse said. “The consumers said they want direct interaction with the distilleries. They wanted sampling capability. They wanted educational pieces. They wanted to have experiences they can’t get anywhere else. You throw it all in a big barrel, so to speak, and this is what came out of that.”

What came out of that is an exclusive 21-and-over three-day event that brings distillers face to face with their customers and those wanting to learn more about bourbon.

“Every year, the Kentucky Bourbon Festival brings together distilleries within our region to celebrate the spirit of Bardstown and camaraderie,” said Conor O’Driscoll, Heaven Hill Distillery master distiller. “We are looking forward to a week of spotlighting those in our community who bring bourbon to life, as well as providing new experiences for visitors and fans to get to know us better.”

While there’s nothing positive about the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a silver lining to it, according to Prasse. The 2020 festival had to pivot to a virtual event where master distillers, local chefs, enthusiasts, experts and others conducted online sessions that included history lessons, food pairings, and interviews with master distillers and industry legends.

Those virtual sessions drew more than 1,500 viewers from around the world, and the tally continues to grow.

“It lives on. You can go to the [festival’s] YouTube channel right now” and see last year’s sessions, Prasse said. “People are still going to it and talking about how they watched it back in October, and that they’re going back and getting a refresher course. I believe if we could really dig deep into the ticket buyers this year, there are probably first-time attendees coming in 2021 who first discovered us through the virtual [festival] last year. And we’ll add to it. We’re going to continue to record.”

What they heard from participants also reinforced the survey’s results.

“Their parting comments typically were, ‘We like what you’re doing. Why wasn’t this done 10 years ago, 15 years ago?’ It’s about the distilleries now,” said Steve Coomes, the festival’s programming coordinator. “It’s about the whiskey and the people who make it. Those are the people who our visitors want to see and, luckily, they’ll get chances [this year] to interact with those guys.”

Coomes has organized more than a dozen seminars that cover a wide range of all things bourbon, including the chance to learn more about the craft of blending with master distillers from Barrell Craft Spirits and Four Roses Bourbon, to discover how to “nose and taste bourbon like a professional,” and to sample the “real Kentucky combo meal” of bourbon and country ham.

“Some of it will just be talks that people can listen to,” Prasse said. “Other pieces will be more of the advanced premium opportunities that will actually allow people into a smaller classroom environment where they can sample and do pairings.”

Each evening of the festival will feature special dinners—the Beam Family Barbeque on Friday, the Rabbit Hole Dinner Experience on Saturday, and Blanton’s Bourbon and Burgoo on Sunday.

Nearly two dozen distilleries will be on hand at the Great Lawn at Spalding Hall, where attendees can sample favorite and hard-to-find bourbons. Two marketplaces will feature vendors selling Kentucky and bourbon-specific items, food trucks will offer a variety of options, and musicians will perform throughout the festival.

“It’s a cool thing to get to do,” Prasse said. “Be among your peers. Be among people who drink responsibly. Be among people who are enthusiastic about the product or maybe want to learn about the product, and be among the people who make it.”

While the idea of changing the festival to a 21-and-over event may not sit well with some folks, Coomes said most of the responses have been positive, and that an adult-only event was a big selling point, so much so that all 9,000 tickets, including the $400 VIP package, sold out within days.

“We’re creating an experience where people don’t have to stand in line all day. It’s not about how many people we can cram in the VW; it’s more about the experience and how many people can we give a really wonderful experience to,” Prasse said. “We’re more of a boutique event. We’re never aspiring to break records or try to outdo attendance records from year to year. It’s less about that and a lot more about the experience the distilleries and consumers can have.”