11 Kentucky Traditions That Confuse Many People Who Move There

Move to Kentucky, and sooner or later someone will tell you the mayor of Rabbit Hash is a dog.

They’re not joking, and that’s just the start.

Here are the Kentucky traditions that confuse many people who move there, and what each one’s about.

1. Fancy Farm’s Political Picnic

Fancy Farm’s picnic is a church barbecue where candidates and officeholders take the microphone.

St. Jerome Catholic Church in Graves County has held it since 1880, on the first Saturday of August.

You’ll find several thousand pounds of smoked chicken, pork, and mutton on the menu.

Yes, that’s mutton.

The speaking part dates to the early 1900s, when politicians began making informal campaign visits.

Each speaker has between two and eight minutes at the microphone.

When two candidates are running against each other, a coin flip decides who goes first.

Talking politics at a meal is often considered poor manners, so a barbecue full of campaign speeches can catch you off guard.

2. Rabbit Hash’s Dog Mayor

Rabbit Hash, a community on the Ohio River, elects a dog as its mayor.

Dogs have served in the job since 1998.

Every $1 vote goes to the Rabbit Hash Historical Society, which maintains the town’s facilities.

If you want a say, a dollar buys you a vote.

Mayor Boone, a bluetick coonhound, won the 2024 race with a record number of votes.

Boone was sworn in on Jan. 12, 2025, over a box of Milk Bones.

The mayor has a tail.

3. Tater Day

Tater Day in Benton is a celebration of the sweet potato.

It began as a trade day where sweet potato slips were among the most common items.

The first one was in 1843, the year after Marshall County was formed.

Tater Day is considered one of the oldest outdoor trade days in the United States.

You could have watched a parade, a sweet potato pie eating contest, and a pony pull at the 2026 festival.

If you’re planning ahead, Tater Day 2027 is scheduled for Monday, April 5.

4. Poke Sallet Festival

The Poke Sallet Festival in Harlan County is named for poke sallet, which a festival co-coordinator calls a toxic weed.

To get the toxins out, you have to boil it three times.

After that, you cook it in egg and oil, which makes it a delicacy.

The festival began as a small gathering centered on poke sallet.

Harlan has held it for more than 70 years, most recently in June 2026.

5. Hillbilly Days

If you drive into downtown Pikeville during Hillbilly Days, you’ll find it shut down.

The festival runs three days each spring.

Its founders had to win over the Shrine temple, the mayor, the county judge, and the sheriff before the first festival in 1977.

For nearly 50 years, it has raised money for the Shriners hospital in Lexington.

About 150,000 people visited the three-day festival in 2024.

A 2025 news report called it the state’s second-largest event, behind the Kentucky Derby.

6. Decoration Day

Decoration Day is a folk tradition in which families visit the cemeteries where their relatives are buried to clean and decorate the graves.

A 2021 essay about it includes a photo of Riverside Cemetery in Perry County, where members of the author’s family are buried.

If a neighbor invites you, you may find a religious service and a dinner on the ground at the cemetery.

Across the South, the date falls on different Sundays for different cemeteries.

Folklorist Alan Jabbour argued that it inspired Memorial Day.

7. Sorghum Festival

The Morgan County Sorghum Festival in West Liberty is known for sorghum production.

If you’ve never tasted sorghum, it’s a syrup made by cooking the juice of sorghum cane down in open pans.

If you’re new to town, expect West Liberty to shut down for the festival on the last full weekend in September.

The festival runs Friday through Sunday.

In 2022, a tent nearly the length of a football field returned to Main Street for the first time since the pandemic.

In 2024, festival committee members called off Friday’s events because of storms from Hurricane Helene’s remnants, then reopened Saturday.

8. Mountain Laurel Festival

The Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival in Pineville holds a queen’s coronation over Memorial Day weekend.

If you see ball gowns and curtsies at a state park, you’ve found it.

Women representing colleges are introduced as queen candidates.

Each one curtsies before the governor, who crowns the new festival queen.

The first festival was in 1931.

The Grand March, a dance with roots in the Polish polonaise, has been taught to college students in Pineville since then.

It’s formal.

9. Paducah’s QuiltWeek

Paducah hosts American Quilter’s Society (AQS) QuiltWeek, a quilt show that returns each spring.

AQS held its first quilt show and contest in Paducah in April 1985.

If you’d like to go, the 2027 show is listed for April 21 to 24, with workshops starting Monday, April 19.

The National Quilt Museum in Paducah opened in 1991.

You may hear Paducah called Quilt City.

10. Ventriloquist Convention

The Vent Haven ConVENTion, an international gathering of ventriloquists, happens in Erlanger every July.

You’ll find the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, which has been hosting the ConVENTion since 1975.

If you were hoping to drop in, the ConVENTion is for registered attendees only.

A 2019 Smithsonian profile called the museum the only one in the world devoted to ventriloquism.

It has nearly 1,000 dummies, some dating to the Civil War.

That’s a lot of dummies.

11. Renfro Valley Barn Dance

Renfro Valley's Barn Dance sounds like a square dance to many newcomers.

It began in 1937, when John Lair launched it on Cincinnati radio station WLW.

The Valley itself opened in 1939.

Louisville radio station WHAS later took over the broadcasts, expanding them to 20 shows a week.

As radio waned in popularity, the Valley became a live-music venue.