"For years, Mary Wathen watched as restaurants, hotels and downtown Lexington itself got gussied up for the opening of the Keeneland spring meet in hopes of attracting race-goers to spend some of their winnings — or money they just didn't lose — at local businesses.
"They all went above and beyond to make everyone feel welcome, get spruced up, get cleaned up," she said. "We put flowers out, we had banners, we did all of those things, but we didn't have a specific event to add another element to the opening of Keeneland."
With that in mind, the Best of the Bluegrass Festival was born — a chance to showcase what makes Lexington and all of the Bluegrass unique for both visitors and residents.
"It's a quality of life issue," said Wathen, who coordinated the 2006 edition and got the 2007 festival set up before joining Mayor Jim Newberry's staff as the city's liaison for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. "They feel better about a place when they see a list of things to do and they know somebody is making an effort to make them feel welcome and entertain them while they're here."
The Best of the Bluegrass, started in 2004, is more than a way to coordinate the efforts of local events to attract a bigger audience, according to David Lord, president of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"When the discussion first started, Keeneland was looking for a way to beef up that week before the Makers Mark Mile, (and the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes were) going to take place, because we had several thousand Maker's Mark Ambassadors coming to town. So it seemed like a nice leveraging of helping develop a week-long series of activities and also capturing things that already were occurring and putting them under the umbrella, so that there was a real sense of what all was going on that week," Lord said. "This is the beginning of spring; this is a wonderful time of year to be here. Let's really have more on hand to celebrate the uniqueness of the area."
Still in its infancy, the Best of the Bluegrass has been handled by a number of different groups, according to Fran Taylor, executive director of the Keeneland Foundation and market involvement administrator at Keeneland, but the goal has always been the same.
"It needed to be a festival about the arts that's heavily centered on downtown," Taylor said of the festival, which has been coordinated by a gaggle of Keeneland volunteers, LexArts and now the Downtown Lexington Corporation. "Yes, there is horse racing, and yes, there are Legends games, and for the visitor and local alike, there are a flurry of activities that are unique to the Bluegrass. As many as possible are unique to hold the flavor of our region and reflect that uniqueness."
The first idea for the festival, according to Taylor, came from Maker's Mark head Bill Samuels, Jr., when his company decided to start the Maker's Mark Mile. She said he envisioned the week leading up to the Mile and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes as a chance to be similar to the week's worth of activities in Louisville that lead up to the running of the Oaks and Derby at Churchill Downs. The Kentucky Derby Festival has proven to be a cash cow for the River City as the city sees $17 in return for every one spent. Now in its sixth decade, the Derby Festival, according to communications director Aimee Boyd, has an attendance of 1.5 million, had an economic impact of $93.6 million in 2001, the last time a study was commissioned, and has a budget of $5 million this year to go along with its throng of 4,000 volunteers and 22 full-time staff members. All that for a festival that started with a $640 budget in 1956 to bring some more life to the city in the week leading up to the Run for the Roses.
"Knowing you've got the ambassadors coming in and knowing we've got thousands of other race fans going in, the challenge was what can we offer that will make them want to come in a few days early? Or what can we do to make them think about staying an extra day or two? Certainly, what do we do to show them a better time when they are here and to make them think about coming back next year and have them consider making it an annual (trip) and bringing their friends?"
The goal for the event is to expand it each year with new offerings, appealing to a large audience or small. As it stands, there is no way a person can attend all the events taking place around town.
"It's a huge, huge event that really does showcase our region, and a lot of the efforts and focus is on downtown," said Renee Jackson, executive director of the DLC. New events taking place downtown for this year's Best of the Bluegrass include a pub crawl hitting up 11 downtown hotspots and featuring specialty drinks at each bar made with Kentucky beer and bourbon. And there is an addition to last year's Best of the Bluegrass Jam, with world-class Bluegrass artists Dean Osborne, Tim Lake, Amy and Daniel Carwile and Art Mize participating in a workshop where they can help the young and old alike master the instrument of their choice.
For people that didn't get enough jamming with or listening to the Bluegrass musicians, another new Lexington treat, LexJam, started earlier this year at the Lexington Center, happens on April 14. The monthly session welcomes all genres and provides instruments to make it easy for musicians to drop by and sit in.
A published list of events, whether they would occur independently of the Best of the Bluegrass or not, will help draw people who might just be in town for the races but not staying in the downtown to come check out the area, Jackson said.
"When people come to our community, they are going to remember what they see downtown," she said. "That is going to be the impression, more than likely, that they take away — not something that they saw out in the suburbs or out in the mall or whatever."
New draws to the downtown are already in the works for next year's Best of the Bluegrass, according to Keeneland's Taylor, who hopes to see an addition of a Steeplechase Race, a run through downtown hitting all of the area's churches and a Bed Run playing off Lexington's most storied Madam, Belle Brezing.
Seeing how the festival is able to grow over the next few years as well as what works and what doesn't will make it a good bellwether for what the city can do to help entertain the massive number of people expected to visit Lexington for the 2010 World Equestrian Games.
"This is a perfect vehicle to put into place for the Games," Wathen said. "Let's test it, and let's see what we can do with it. Everybody has ideas of what to do downtown, so it all just has to be brought into a coordinated effort so everyone knows what everyone else is doing."
Events such as these, on top of other draws to a city, are what keep people coming back, she said.
"People see we care enough to go above the norm to welcome them. When they come back for a visit, they may stay an extra day, they may know someone who's looking to move there These things have an effect that is far more reaching than is normally felt."