9 Kentucky Traditions Out-of-Staters Think Are Just for Derby Week
The Kentucky Derby is over in about two minutes.
Outside Kentucky, Americans talk like the state’s whole calendar revolves around those two minutes for a solid week every spring.
It doesn’t.
These are the Kentucky traditions outsiders assume live and die with Derby week.
1. Mint Juleps
Outsiders treat mint juleps like a costume prop, something Kentuckians only pour out for ten days each spring.
That’s not how the drink works.
Keeneland Race Course keeps the mint julep in play at both of its meets, the spring stretch each April and the fall meet every October, months removed from the Derby’s first Saturday in May.
The link between horse racing and the drink goes back to the 1820s, when a sterling silver julep cup went to the winning jockey as a trophy, not a garnish.
Ask for a mint julep at a backyard cookout in July, and nobody in Kentucky bats an eye.
The Derby borrowed the drink.
It never invented it.
2. Big Hats
Kentucky’s Keeneland Fall Meet earns its own reputation each October as “Fashion at the Races,” complete with fascinators, wide brims, and tweed swapped in for pastel florals.
Outsiders assume Kentucky’s big hats go back in the closet the moment Derby week ends.
Keeneland breaks that pattern.
Racegoers dress up on The Hill for the fall stakes races the same way they would for a big Saturday in the spring.
The tradition never left.
None of them are doing a Derby impression.
They’re just many of the Kentuckians who like dressing up for the races, whatever the season happens to be.
3. Kentucky Bourbon Festival
Kentucky pours bourbon at every Derby party in May, and outsiders assume that’s the state’s one big bourbon spotlight of the year.
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival says otherwise.
The festival has taken over Bardstown, the self-proclaimed Bourbon Capital of the World, every September since 1991, timed to line up with National Bourbon Heritage Month, months after the Derby’s roses have faded.
More than 60 distilleries show up to pour.
That’s a lot more bourbon.
It beats one Saturday in May by months.
Congress recognized bourbon as America’s native spirit, and Kentucky built an entire month of the calendar around celebrating it.
4. Burgoo
Kentucky hunters ladle burgoo from cast-iron kettles at deer camp every fall, long before Derby week ever crosses their minds.
Food historians trace the stew back to 19th-century Kentucky, where it grew into a Civil War-era camp dish, cooked in kettles big enough to feed a crowd.
Hunting season owns it.
Church picnics and political rallies pull out the same recipe.
Many Kentuckians have been making burgoo since long before anyone ran for roses.
Derby week never even makes the ingredient list.
5. Derby-Pie
Kern’s Kitchen in Louisville, Kentucky has baked Derby-Pie since 1954, shipping the chocolate walnut pie as a holiday dessert just as often as a Derby-day one.
The name fools many outsiders into thinking it only comes out of the oven once a year.
Thanksgiving tables and Christmas dinners get the same pie the Derby gets.
Only the tablecloth changes.
The Trademark Behind Derby-Pie
Kern’s Kitchen trademarked the name Derby-Pie in 1969, registering it with both Kentucky and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The company has sued more than 25 times to protect it, including cases against Bon Appétit, PBS, and its own chocolate chip supplier, Nestlé.
Recipe writers who want to skip a lawsuit call theirs a chocolate nut pie instead.
6. “My Old Kentucky Home”
“My Old Kentucky Home” plays like a Derby cue to outsiders, the song everyone associates with the walk to the starting gate.
The Stephen Foster Story proves that wrong every summer.
It has performed the song live at My Old Kentucky Home State Park since 1959, staging it several nights a week from mid-June through early August.
Visitors hear the same melody in July heat that Churchill Downs plays in May.
It’s the same song.
Only the season changes.
7. Kentucky Colonel Titles
Kentucky’s governor signs Kentucky Colonel commissions year-round, not just during Derby week.
Gov. Andy Beshear’s office mails them out any month of the year.
Any month works.
Outsiders assume the honor is a Derby party favor, something handed to a celebrity in the winner’s circle.
The honor dates back to Kentucky’s earliest governors and has gone to teachers, veterans, and neighbors marking a retirement or a big anniversary, with no connection to a racetrack at all.
A Kentucky Colonel commission can arrive by mail in October.
Nobody needs a Derby ticket to earn the title.
Psst! How much do you know about Kentucky’s history beyond the racetrack? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Bluegrass State IQ
Answer these questions on Kentucky history and home-state trivia. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which two future presidents on opposite sides of the Civil War were both born in Kentucky within about a year of each other?
8. Saddlebred Horse Shows
Louisville hosts an entirely separate breed's championship every August, months after the Derby's last race.
The World's Championship Horse Show has crowned American Saddlebred champions since 1902, missing only two years in more than a century, now held each August at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds.
Outsiders hear "Kentucky horse show" and assume every racetrack story in the state starts and ends at Churchill Downs.
There's no overlap at all.
Saddlebreds trot and rack under saddle instead of running flat-out for a mile and a quarter.
It's a different breed, a different sport, and a different season.
9. Fried Chicken
Kentucky fried chicken looks like a Derby infield prop to outsiders, part of the spring spread and nothing more.
London, Kentucky's chicken festival answers back every September.
The World Chicken Festival fries thousands of chicken quarters in the world's largest stainless steel skillet, a 700-pound pan that holds 300 gallons of oil.
The festival honors Colonel Harland Sanders, the state's best-known chicken cook, who never once needed a Derby weekend to sell a drumstick.
Derby week never factors in.
That skillet has fed people since 1992, long before this year's Derby and long after it too.
Laurel County crowns a festival queen, runs a parade, and lets the skillet do the cooking while carnival rides spin two blocks over.
A plate from that skillet costs less than a Derby infield ticket, and it comes with a lot more napkins.
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