Bourbon Festival Blueprint With KBF President Randy Prasse

We talk with Randy Prasse about why the Kentucky Bourbon Festival keeps selling out faster and how the team protects the general admission experience while still offering real VIP comfort. We get into the unglamorous details that make the weekend work, from gate flow and bottle lines to add-ons, education, and what is new for this year. 
• tickets selling out and what the “sold out” numbers really mean 
• why KBF prioritises GA first and keeps VIP co-mingling 
• how COVID shaped the fenced footprint and current festival model 
• distilleries upgrading tents, decor, and interactive activations 
• bottle lines, sampling lines, and better cutoff communication 
• entry gate fairness and adding a second GA gate 
• featured distillery spotlight on New Riff 
• new speakeasy style upgrades and small suite concepts 
• cigar lounge ambitions and why it is polarising 
• add-ons timing, lockers, shuttles, and premium education options 
• bourbon tourism impact for Bardstown and repeat visitors 
www.scotchybourbonboys.com for all things Scotchy Bourbon Boys, merchandise, Glenn Cairns, everything 
Drink responsibly, don’t drink and drive, and go out and live your life uncut and unfiltered 

Tickets vanish in a day and suddenly the Kentucky Bourbon Festival becomes a planning sport. We sit down with festival director Randy Prasse to unpack how KBF in Bardstown earned that demand, what actually changed after COVID, and why the smartest design choice is surprisingly simple: build the general admission experience first, then let VIP be a comfort upgrade without splitting the crowd into two different festivals. If you care about bourbon culture, bourbon tourism, and how the best whiskey events stay authentic at scale, this conversation delivers the blueprint.  

We get specific about the stuff that makes or breaks a bourbon festival weekend: bottle lines, sampling lines, communicating inventory before people waste an hour, and improving gate flow so “fairness” is more than a slogan. Randy explains why capacity hasn’t quietly ballooned even when it feels tighter, how distilleries have expanded their footprints, and why the festival pushes brands to bring real engagement instead of a generic pour-and-smile setup. We also talk featured distillery New Riff, the “new product launch” energy KBF is aiming for, and the behind-the-scenes team dynamics that keep the whole thing running.  

Then we look forward. Randy shares what’s new, including a speakeasy style upgrade that works like a mini VIP, potential corporate hospitality suites, and the expanding menu of add-ons like education sessions, cocktail and culinary experiences, lockers, and shuttles. If you’re trying to do KBF the right way, you’ll leave with a clearer plan and a better sense of what to prioritise. Subscribe, share this with your bourbon crew, and leave us a review, what’s the one festival change you’d make first?

voice over Whiskey Thief

If You Have Gohsts

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I'm here to tell you about Whiskey Thief Distilling Company and their newly open tasting world. Whether you are up for a farm-glass distilling experience on the Three Boys Farm in Frankfurt, Kentucky, or an out-of-this world tasting experience in the new local, you won't be disappointed. At both locations, their barrel picked all day, every day, are like none of it. Each location features tastes with five barrels. Each feature of their pot is still bourbon. Once the barrels have been food and tastes, you can make a collection and cook your own bottle. A day at Whiskey with their friendly staff and ownership will insert you many good times with good friends and family. Remember to always drink responsibly, never drink and dry, and live your life on heart and unfiltered.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Tiny's in the house, Super Nash is in the house, and El Presidente is in the house.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Welcome, Randy.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Oh, we know it. We know it. Well, I might have skipped I might have skipped over 13 because it's just bad luck, but I do that for everybody, and I say everybody because it's nobody. You're the first.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Here's a point. Saturday Night Live, it once you host five times, there's a club and you get it like a jacket. Yeah. So I with my 14th, I've got the official. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

So the only so I guess uh and and this the the jerseys are definitely courtesy of car whiskey. Whiskey whiskey does a great, he's he's a little less involved lately, but he is part of us. There's no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

He I asked him why last week, and he told me why.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Okay. Okay. And so he doesn't like he doesn't like you. Well, of course he doesn't. No, he he's the only guy that gives me more shit than you do.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

That's the same thing he told me yesterday while we were talking about that.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I'm like whatnot. As soon as Jeffrey's not involved, he'd be more involved, is what he told me.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Yeah, he told me. So it's not you, it's not you, Super Nash.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah, okay, so he'd be more involved in nothing. I'm the guy that does.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So we're not doing the barrel bashing. We're now we're doing tiny bashing. That's the new tradition.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

There you go. So you yeah, that's well, you have to run that by Stacy, our whiskey godmother. She need you know, that that has to go by.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

I think she'll be on board for that.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I'm sure she will be.

How COVID Changed The Festival

SPEAKER_00 5:26

No, but no, it's good, it's great to see you. It's always good to, and every time, and tell Jeffrey, tell me if I'm lying. Every time when we're like pre-gaming, prepping, talking, I'm like, I I gotta be off this thing in half an hour or whatever. And it's like it'll be 10 o'clock at night, you know, hour and a half later. I'm like, damn it, I did again.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

And last time I'm like, well, we can wrap it up because you gotta go, and you can go, and you're just like, no, I'm fine. You're just I even gave you throwing that out now, right? I threw the out. Yeah, I'll do it again. I mean, I know, I know you're busy, but you know, I will I we just gotta give you a hand. I'm giving you a hand because to watch what's happened with the festival, you know, not just the festival itself, as far as how much how much you've grown the festival, the people that are there, the experiences are there, how the experiences are set up, the the involvement with the the festival with the community, but just in ticket sales alone. It's just kind of like I remember after twenty after the the virtual one, the first festival, we you've sold out all the festivals as far as tickets. Now, the first one after after COVID, you had lower tickets. There wasn't as many tickets because of the fact that COVID was kind of still ramping, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

But then once we got going, and that was that was the first year of the new, the new the new model, as you call it. Some hate it, some continue to hate it. But and it really is it started because of COVID. Because if you remember, if you went to a big box retailer, a Hogan Deep or Lovos, whatever, they had a person employed on a walkie-talkie on the end and one on the exit, and two people will leave, and the other person will let two people in. And that's really what we were gearing up to have to do, you know, with with social distancing, and they're gonna start letting us gather again as a public. We don't want to goof this up, so there was square footage we had to be mindful of. But that's really how the the whole fence around the the KVF started originally was just to manage where people were gonna be able to come in and out. So and but please continue because I mean it it has been a fun run.

Designing VIP And GA Together

SPEAKER_01 7:46

It's been a but but it took it took you. I mean, the tickets have always gone set on sale in April, and but it but to the now the the VIP is a whole different animal. We you've we've talked about how special it is and everything, but as far as the general emission, it's kind of like the difference between the you know the you if you have a general emission ticket, you have an experience unlike any, and you can run into everybody you run in into the VIP tent and everything. It's just it's the VIP is is is different, you know, there's some things, some amenities that you have of comfort. But other than that, the experience of the the quality of the whiskey, the people that you're seeing, and the events that you can go to are all very similar to what if you have that experience.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

And what I find is and that's by the design, right? That's by the design. We focus on the general admission experience first, and we've always done that. VIP is an upgrade from GA because everybody co-mingles. We want VIPs out on the lawn interacting with all the distilleries, and and and and you know there are people that one year will get VIP and the next year they didn't, and the next year for that, maybe they are. So the the quality of our audience that we have there is it's a blend. Everybody really technically could be and wants to be a VIP, but when they come for the GA experience, they they have the same experience as the VIP, just minus the the air-conditioned tent and the catering, you know, that kind of thing. But actually, once you're at the festival, by design, everybody should have the same, hopefully, high quality experience.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Absolutely. It's been showing too.

Ticket Sellouts And Capacity Myths

SPEAKER_01 9:32

And and the amount of tasting there and everything. But what I'll say is it used to take you to sell out the whole festival from that 2021 festival all the way up to last year, up to last year. You would sell out every year a little bit, but you know, August, late August was at first, then it was early August, you know, and I don't think, I don't think it, I don't think, I think it was early August two years ago was when, and but but then last year I sensed that change within the whiskey community and people finding out what that festival had evolved to, what the distilleries, how they take it, the seriousness, what you can, what the experience can be. And last year you sold out in three days, three days, and I had that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

And then I had this year, I definitely had that feeling again, but I felt that you could sell out in two days, and in reality, you pretty much sold out in one day because that's when the tickets went on sale today, and they're all you've sold all the tickets, and to sell out like a 24 hours, 11 to 11, and then add four more hours because by about three o'clock this afternoon on uh on Tuesday the 14th is when we sold the last general mission ticket. Now, there are still a few of the Sunday one day tickets, which a lot of people still we still sell 800, 900 of those. So there are people that just either are locals and just want to come up and have a nice afternoon into the park. And Sunday by far is the most chill part of the weekend. And you can come up there and have the distilleries like it because it's a nice way to kind of ride off into the sunset for another year. So there are, I don't want to false advertise and say that we're completely sold, but all the three-day packages are gone, and there's a few hundred of the of the Sunday sampler tickets, we call it.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Which are gonna go.

Distilleries Level Up The Experience

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Well, I hope so. I mean, I'll talk a little bit of, I'll peel the curtain back a little bit. So 2021 was a a different year. That was the first year that you know we came out. So 2022 was really the first year, and we we were using Tickstar like we are now, and we sold out in 2022, partly because we had to set a date that pencils down, test is over, this is the date, August 8th or whatever it was when we had to do the fulfillment and we had to send all the wristbands off to people. So while we really did sell out, we kind of for we could have kept selling, but we said today's the day we sold out and we're done. And we just kind of kept those same numbers every year since because it felt right. 2022 was a good year as far as gauging the number of people that were at the festival. And with 22 through this year, we've been on like a 50 ticket variance. So we're not doing overselling and underselling. We're like right in that 50 ticket range, you know, every year. That's that's about how much we adjust the the number of tickets we sell. So contrary to what people sometimes say on on social media, we aren't overselling, we're not cramming more people into the park. It's just the distilleries have gotten bigger 20 by 20 tenth. Now they're doing a 30 by 30 tenth, and that eats up square footage and makes the aisles a little narrower and tighter, and it feels like there's more people, then obviously with the bottle sales and the lines. But I can guarantee you that within 50 tickets, the last four years have all been the basically the same number of tickets being sold.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Well, I will say you touched on on that right there. Yeah. And yeah, that's what I want. I want to mention is too, is that the distilleries have really upped their game in providing an experience for all the festival goers. I mean, as far as their their tents and and their their venues that each one of them are bringing now, and all they've really stepped it up to where, I mean, you're getting an experience like no other. Like it used to be the first couple of years, you know, they were being able to sell bottles and stuff like that, but now they're selling bottles and stuff like that. So they realize that, and they're making each one of their individual venues so high tech and and you know, ready to go, and on the offering that's vacant. Everybody really wants to get there.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Well, and and thank you, and thank you for noticing that. And we've encouraged the distilleries to invest in the decor. And by design, uh, overall kind of the theme of this festival from a visual is pretty much everybody has a white tent that we provide, and then from that point they can do whatever they wanted with the decor. And that was because we've got this beautiful old 200-plus year old venue. Uh, in fact, this year's 200th anniversary of Spaulding Hall where the Oscar Gets Museum is. But we we wanted the focus to be on what's going on inside the tent and not the tent. We wanted the distilleries to have that freedom to create and represent their brand, but from an outsider looking in, we wanted that stunning white visual against the trees and everything, and hopefully blue skies. But and they started doing games and things to engage and hold the crowd, and that was something we've been encouraging them. I mean, Angel's Envy, I think, probably was the first one to get on board with that. And they started doing like the ring toss and you know, giveaways and and things that just kind of entertain people and keep you know, keep them engaged a little bit longer than if it was just a tasting event where you're just going boom, boom, boom down the line. They're actually holding, you know, and entertaining them and being and but still representing their brand through the activity that that they're doing.

Scheduling Conflicts With Bigger Festivals

SPEAKER_01 15:18

So like Green Rivers got the thing, the the slide too, the little coin slide. So the one thing I want to say though is that when the festival init the a lot of people don't realize, but the first the bourbon and beyond, when they came back in 20, I believe they were out in 21 and 22, but they came back in 23 and they were on the same weekend. And when that happened, what happened is I noticed, because I noticed the last two years, and now this year, the last it'll be three now, it's not on the same weekend. And so what you've got is you've got a weekend of there.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Elvis Elvis is in the room.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Oh, right. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

The world is watching you. Well, what's up? What's up?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

So the the thing is is that that that they you were splitting, some people were splitting the time. They they get fest tickets to both, and some on a sat, they come on a Friday, be a Saturday, come back Sunday, or whatever. So when now that you're on your own weekend, you basically have the whole festival attending all three days.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

And I really think that was part of clarify, we've always been on our weekend.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

And Bourbon and Beyond ended up landing on our weekend a couple of times, but we've worked with them to find out what their schedule is going to be so we don't weekend. And we're, you know, the third weekend of September is where we traditionally had always been, and now we move it around a little bit, but you know, they're a lot bigger event, and they have two weekends involved because they also have the louder than life, and so they set up the main venue and they have to let it set up for two whole weekends. So we're a little smaller and a little bit more nimble so we can move around, and that's just kind of the way we've we've worked with them is that uh as long as the re September National Bourbon Marriage Month, and you know, but otherwise it worked. But I mean there was some confusion on that because there were people that still didn't know what the Kentucky Bourbon Festival was, so they're Googling bourbon events, little whatever, and they were buying tickets to us thinking they're gonna go see Red Hat Chili Peppers or or Luke Bryan or whatever, and or they'd show up at our festival and like I think we're in the wrong, we got on the wrong bus, and vice versa. We had people going, bought tickets for us, and then ended up at the fairgrounds for bourbon and beyond. And so, I mean, there's a lot of reasons why we need to make sure we're on separate weekends, but uh well and I thank you we've defined ourselves now to where people know who we are, they know who Bourbon and Beyond is.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

So I I thank you for putting it on the weekend after Memorial Day weekend the last two years because I come in, I come in, and now I get a I don't have to use as I I don't have to use as many vacation days because memor that Monday is a vacation day.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Labor Day.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

There yeah, little Labor Day. Yep, that weekend.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

And your birthday is what, September 8th or something?

The Dream Team Behind KBF

SPEAKER_01 18:22

21st. It used to be right like when you when you moved it up that the the third, you know, it was coming, and I'm like, oh my god, the Saturday of my 60th birthday is gonna be at Kentucky, and you're like, I moved it. Like, but we still had a fun, we still well then it didn't.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

I still gave you that barrel head button.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And and by the way, when you I'll update it anytime, you know that. It's like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Ice hint.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, there you go. Anytime.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

It's like it's always that that's a good one because it's relevant this year with America's 250, the patriotism that I've always been trying to you know integrate into the marketing. This year's our 35th year, so we've got a lot of really cool graphics. We got an eagle with a Glen Karen swooping in as one of the graphics that's actually pretty cool. I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Yeah, there's yeah, that one's the 2024. And then I also had the 30th one up for a while. So, you know, it's definitely always going to be up there. It's just which one.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Well, thank you. You guys, and and and Ty, I knew you know this. You were you were there before me. I mean, you you've been at the Kentucky Burden Festival longer than I have, and and we we consulted early on about what media wrote what we could do, and we've changed it so many different times, trying to accommodate podcasters and and content creators, and it's it's morphed a few times. But uh, I'll never forget the first year was a row of 10 by 40 10 with four individual little interview booths, and you were kind of feeding off the old main stage and when it's still on the lawn, people would come off of the programs of Steve Coombs and they kind of work media row, and you'd always be able to snag them and have you know have conversations with them. So yeah, but thank you for that. You've always been valuable behind the scenes, also just ask, you know, helping us create a situation that is a good environment for you all.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Well, it's the one it uh that's as long as you're there, it's the one festival I'm not missing. I mean, uh I there's other ones. I mean, there's other ones that we've gone to, and you know, but there and there's years that you might it might might not work out, but I mean, as soon as the the how uh the farmhouse, as you referred to it, as soon as we leave that farmhouse, we know what the you have the next year's dates already set, and we already have it booked for that that that full week before and and during.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

And thank you. Well, and you you you're gonna be stuck with me at least through 2030 because I just I have a five-year contract with with the board to perfect because I'll I'll try not to die.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

I'll try not to die.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Well, and and you know, I mean, I told them I said, yeah, and you know, you know my history. I don't need you to go into the resume, but I mean I've run a lot of different events, bigger and smaller. And I said, look, I don't I don't want to go anywhere. There's so much more opportunities still to come. I'm still challenged, I'm not getting bored, I'm not feeling burned out. I want to be here. I want this to be my last job, if you even want to call it that. And so the board, the board came back and said, Well, let's let's make that happen. I'll be 62, I think, in at the end of 20 in 2030. So I don't want to go anywhere. You guys are you know friends and family, and everybody watching and listening for the most part are people that I know and friends and interact with all year round. And it's it's a rare dynamic, what I've got here from a career you know perspective. Forget, forget the phenomena of the tickets going on sale and everything. Because the tickets selling out is a testament to a lot of things. Early on, sure, it was my vision, but I built a team. I've got support from friends like you, I've got the distilleries who always know that as long as I'm here, they're gonna be number one. And the fans, the people who buy the tickets, know that all those other things align and they're gonna have a great experience. So it works, and that's why it works. It's not one person, it's it's a whole set of things lining up correctly. And uh, and any one of those components moves or changes a little bit, it'll it'll be seen and felt with the festival. So we do Stacy and I work year-round, the whole team, Steve Coombs, we all work very closely year-round with the distilleries to make sure that we're listening to them, that we're giving them the experience that they want and need, and we're putting in front of them the people that they need to have you know engaged in sifts to lips. And and in turn, the the the fans that come to the festival know that the distilleries are all bringing their A game and just it just works. It's it's it's one of those rare things. Self-fulfilling positive things versus a self-fulfilling you know negative that sometimes snowballs the other way. This just snowballs in the right direction. So cheers to you guys. And once again, just the guides of bourbon boys, Glenn Karen. And New Riff, we haven't mentioned New Riff, but I've got a couple of my new Riff. New Riff is the featured distillery this year. And this is the sixth year. We started with Makers Mark. We went to Jim Beam, then we went to Barstown Bourbon Company, and then we went to Evan Hill. Last year we went to Angels Zenby, and this year it is our friends at New Riff. And they get a lot of extra special love during the year. But last week at our distiller dinner at River House, they uh revealed the official cocktail of the KBF, and yeah, we jumped right in it. So uh new new riffs just a really they're special to us because they started off the first year as a true craft distillery, a 10 by 10 tent and a folding table and a couple chairs. And now the way they've grown and stepped up and and invested with us, it's just something it's really fun to see. You expect to see the big brands and the you know the legacy brands be able to figure it out and own it. But really the craft distilleries have stepped up over the last couple of years and and owned it. And they want to grow and they're getting into bigger, bigger footprints and and really you know getting their legs underneath them. So it's fun to see that that growth.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Hey, here's uh uh what you were just talking about right before new riff is there's a good friend of ours, and Steve LaPonte, and he's got a saying whenever he's doing a barrel pick with groups, and he always says, and the way he does the barrel picks, when the stars align, you know it's the right one. And that's you know, and you just mentioned when you know the stars align, and that just brought that that saying that he says all the time to me, and and and that's it. But sometimes align it's the right one.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Sometimes sayings are sometimes that can be cliche, but cliche doesn't necessarily mean that it's not true, you know. And and that's and we we went, Andrea and uh Dan with Mickers gave the our little barrel pick team. Every year we Stacy coordinates a fun little trip a couple years ago as Vendome, and we got a really, truly behind the scenes view. Well, this year we went to Mickers and really truly got into where people can't see, you know, it was even no no pictures, put your phones away. We're we're deep diving. And we're sitting there, we've done it having lunch. And Andrea walked in the room, she goes, Wow, what a dream team you've got here. And and really, over the years, I've got people that I've worked with, like our ticketing box office guy this year, is my mentor that got me into the industry in 1992. And now he's running our ticketing. I've done brew festivals with him. So I I've got these people, Stacy on here full time. That's what she does. She interacts with the with the distilleries. I've got Steve Coombs, I've got SSPR with Tracy and Anna, and they literally were just named last year the top PR firm in the whiskey industry. So they're that that's who represents us. Tracy Williamson, I mean, she was the original graphic designer for Barstown Burton Company and that iconic bottle and all the really branding. She's our creative director and our web designer. You know, you just go around the table and it's just we've got the really the best people, you know, two or three people that I took with me when I left Churchill Downs, our director of security, our director of operations, those are all people that have got 50 years or more experience in the in the festival industry. So when I look around the table, it really is a dream team that everybody's at the top of their game. And and I'd like to, I mean, most of them have said that they are with us doing the role because they they trust me, they know that I'm uh serious when it comes to putting together an event. And but we have so much fun. I mean, every time Tara Nelson does all of our hospitality, the you know, the the catering and the bartending, she comes up from Nashville. Gary Braun, our director of office, comes down from Chicago. You know, I mean, it really is it's a fun couple of days. We work hard, put in long days, but it's a it's definitely a team and a family. So the KBF is Kentucky Bourbon Festival, but in our case, it's really the Kentucky Bourbon family because it's I mean, we we would take a bullet for each other, we've always got each other's back, and that helps. There's a lot of trust in the in this team, trust because we know that we're all proven. So that doesn't mean one of us doesn't fall in there, but the other ones are there to pick up. And even if we fight like brothers and sisters behind the scenes, man, when you're out public, don't mess with us, you know, everybody's everybody's back. And uh it's it's it's it's so unusual. And I've worked for nonprofits and state boards for 35 years, and this board is an amazing board. Number one, they trust me again. I like to think I earned that trust, but they they empower me, they follow, I mean they give me guidance and feedback and what ifs, what let's try this, but at the end of the day, they they let us do our thing. And well, you know, even if somebody wanted, even if I was tempted to go somewhere else, the the look in the mirror would be I've got dude, I've got the best board in the world. I've worked for some great boards, I've worked for some really bad boards, I've worked for boards of 52 members, I've worked for boards that were completely all appointed government by the governor, and those those are train wrecks. So there's so many things. The team that that we have, the family, the board that really trusts us and allowed us do our thing, and then guys like you. I mean, you know, the and the people that are watching, it's that just does not come around more than once in a lifetime. So that's never lost on me when I when I'm working on and look, the the worst day in the world, I think I'm so stressed out and what a tough day. But I grew up on a dairy farm. So I like to say that my worst day is a lot better than a lot of good days that my dad and my grandfather had, you know, before. So it keeps a lot of things in perspective.

Managing Bottle Lines And Communication

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Well, I mean, as far as a family goes, that's obvious. I mean, we come down to your whether it's see you in Louisville or come down into Bardstown, and we know everybody in Bardstown, and we know the family, the all the people that are working, but also, you know, just the distillery people like we what with Sandy know and what we see, and when we come out, and it's gotten to the point where we feel that coming down there, we're we're that that that family atmosphere, and and you when you're talking about a board, honestly, it's a good board, but you you know, Randy, you were hired to do exactly what the festival is here. And I'll I'll I'll even make a Packer analogy. You know, it's like if you remember when Ted Thompson took Wolf's place and he hired Mike McCarthy, and they had Favre, and the whole Favre retirement and then trade, the whole thing, that's kind of what you came into. The festival had its own stamp of Super Bowl already with the distilleries and the and the community, but the team was, I mean, there was no, you know, far made it a lot harder by hitting another, almost getting another Super Bowl to that year, but but you had to basically take this and change it into what McCarthy had to change it into with Aaron Rodgers. So it was the same Ted Thompson, you're like Ted Thompson assembling that team to win the and honestly, this year and last year, it's gotten to the point where you're definitely playing with all the top festivals of for whiskey and even alcohol in the whole wide world. And it's getting out like to sell it out in two days, the the pre-sale, and then within four hours of the rest of the tickets are gone, is like you're it's your rock star. I mean, I don't there's not a I don't think there's any other festival in the world that's no, your team, you guys are you guys are a band in the distillery and everything. The whole thing is just this huge, it's you guys are basically doing the Bargstown Super Bowl, and no matter what, you guys win. Well, and you've done a great job. I mean, I just watched it. You every single idea that you would run by, and I you know, I'm in the the community of barrel picks and everything, and you guys were like, and I'm just going, well, why don't you do that? And then you all of a sudden you're barrel picking, and then all of a sudden, well, the distilleries can sell their own barrel picks, and I'm like, that's an extreme idea. And when they all of a sudden change the rules and you guys could have bottles specific, it's just like though I knew that everybody, not just in Kentucky or the surrounding areas, but everybody in the whole world is now coming. That's why those tickets sell so fast.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Well, we had we had all 50 states represented. And and in full full transparency, that might have meant two people from Alaska and two people from Hawaii, but we had them all checked, and we have 15 inner you know, foreign countries that were there. And but still the last four years, it's been roughly 85% of the people that come to the festival are from outside of Kentucky, and 15% are from in Kentucky. So, as far as an economic driver, the tourism folks obviously understand it. The restaurants and bars, retailers in Barstown get it. And the people that come to the Bourbon Festival, it's not just descending on us like locusts and then they disappear. They come in the week before and they go on the bourbon trail and they hang out with us and go home, or they come in for us and then they stay on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, but they come back several times a year. I would bet you, uh, and this is total just a stab in the dark, but I would bet at least a third of the people that buy tickets to the KBF come back several times a year. And and they also have their own, you know, bourbon societies and clubs, and they're coming in and you know, they're they're coordinating barrel picks and they're doing the bourbon trail, and they're coming into Bardstown and kind of going to Mecca, you know, and hanging out. So, I mean, it's it's important for the whole region what we do, you know, the hotels and you know, heads and beds more than just those three or four nights, but it's it's it's the recurring.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Well, yeah, and and what what it comes down to is I mean, locally, people who are local, they have access to all the distilleries, 365. You know what I mean? They can go when they want, they can they know that if they go at this time, there's not going to be a ton of people, and they can really kind of get their own local experience. And then a lot of them work at the distilleries and whatnot. So, but as far as coming into town, just like us, I mean, there's I come into town probably 10 to 15 times a year, and and there's never a time where the assembly of where I go and what I do, and there's still now times you can go see new stuff. I mean, you know, Potter.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

You're kind of an anomaly, and I'm sure you know that. Because you you are like a kid in a candy store. I mean, every time you're excited, I hear your voice. Hell, I can read it in your text messages. I'm gonna be down in a couple of weeks, and you can I can already get, I can sense how excited you are to be you know coming in. And I love that. I mean, that energy kind of recharges me as well, watching you get ex remain excited about it. And yeah, it's it's a it's a cool industry, man. And you know that. The the camaraderie amongst the enthusiasts, the camaraderie amongst the distilleries, even though they fight for every little quarter inch on the retail shelf, the the people that are making the making the juice love each other and they share and they they really, you know, so it's it's just fun. It's unique. There's nothing there's not another industry or an or another culture like what we have here in the world. I'm I'm convinced of that.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

It's bourbon's the glue.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

The people the people to me in 2024. And I belong to almost 300 Facebook bourbon and whiskey Facebook groups all across the states and around the world. That's amazing. And in 2024, it really became surreal to me as I'm walking across the venue at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and all of a sudden I hear these people, a couple of guys start hollering, super nice, super nice, in an Australian accent. That's awesome. These guys came up to me and they were from Australia and told me how much they and they started their whiskey group in Australia because of watching the Scotchy Bourbon boys and then seeing the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and said, We've got to get there. And then they came in 2024. It wasn't just about an hour after that that I had a couple couple from Japan that came up to me and knew who we were and said that watching it on here and finding out about the Kentucky Bourbon Festival is why they came over to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

I remember that year, and we had there was a our photographer grabbed a group shot of like 10 or 15 of them inside the main gate. And yeah, I remember that. I remember that year.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

Yeah, no, there was two of two of them from that group that that recognized who I was and started talking to me for a few minutes about it.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

And I'll and that's that that that's awesome. And unfortunately, I don't the thing goes by so quickly, and I hate it. There's there's three or four days and it's gone, and then I got a whole other year. So I've been trying really hard. I mean, you know, last year I I tried to change that. And I looked in the mirror, I I say that I use that analogy a lot. And you know, the first couple years, I I had to own this thing. I had to, my name is on it. The expectations were it doesn't matter who actually did it, it's Randy's Randy's credit or Randy's fault. And but over the last year or two, I've really worked on letting loose and trusting again the dream team. And last year I was gone the Wednesday, it was the day before we opened. We rent a truck and we rent a trailer and we had to go pick up the VIP packages that were in downtown Louisville. And I'm looking around, I'm like, I'm right now in this moment during setup, I'm the least important person in this organization. So I grabbed the keys, the truck, and the trailer, and I drove. I was gone probably a total of three hours, and I came back and everything was still fine. I got maybe one phone call, but even a year or two before that, if I would have gone away for an hour or two like that, I mean, it would have been chaos. But so I can step back, I can trust the team to run the festival, and I've been really working on getting out of the mode that you always see me in with the the hat and the combat boots and radio, and and I really need to clean up and and go out and do a little politicking and and talk to people and and thank people for coming. And so every every year I spend a little bit more time doing that and less time worrying about the overflowing trash.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

I did see you out there a lot a lot more last year. Yeah, and walking around. I'm calmer. Well they usually and and also too, a couple times you had some other people with you sort of escorting them and and talking about the festival and not just like problems or anything.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Well, and and Jeffrey, I I always apologize to Jeffrey because I've he he's my whipping boy, and he knows when I'm in that mode, that if he comes out to me at the wrong time, I I bite his head off, and he knows I love him, and I always apologize, and he doesn't even affect him anymore. But the the first year or two I did that, Roxy came out and said, Jeffrey thinks you're mad at him, or you or I'm like, No, he just he walked in like he's he's at a 10, and Jeffrey, I need you at a mod a five right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

Well, yeah, you well, I learned I leave you alone during the festival. You even I can we hang out throughout the year, so there's times there's times for hanging out. Although this year I was looking, I was looking through because we're gonna do I have video and pictures from all the way since throughout. So we're gonna do a Kentucky Bourbon Festival put together, okay? We're gonna put of all the festivals.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

You're talking about the times that we get together throughout the year.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

No, no, I'm talking about I'm putting that together, but we still don't have one with you with all the Scotchy Bourbon boys. There's like no, there's not even we don't even take a selfie because usually when we hit when we see you, it's always individually, never together. You know what I mean? So this year we just gotta change that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

And we've got our photographer that we pay. And with that group, the you know, the the Bourbon Capital Guild that I'm a member of, but they always take a big group shot on KDF weekend. I'm never in that photo.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Uh that's gonna change. And I've got a group of people that some of them have gone to school with since kindergarten, all the way through high school, and some of them into college and and after, but it's it's a big reunion every year. There's probably eight to ten to twelve of them that come down, and I do I do take time to get wrangled in and be a part of that photo. I've I've got that. That was to do that. I want to interact with people more and and you know, last year I took I think I was wearing a regular polo shirt, not a uniform embroidered or anything. And I stood in line at in the Heaven Hill line, just walking along, listening, and nobody recognized me. Not I'm not a celebrity, so but I'm I'm there, I'm listening to people. I want to hear what they're talking about. I want to hear if they're complaining about the lines that I want to hear, and it was all this positive, like you know, every few seconds you move up a step or two, and you just I stood in line with them for about half an hour and then you know peeled out. But I wanted just to really kind of blend in and hear what people are saying.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

I I'm just gonna do more of that. I mean, the one thing uh you you are conscious of the lines, and the lines have to be in this in a certain place. I think you did a good job with that last year. But the one thing bourbon people know and do is lines. So you do you don't realize you're throwing a festival that includes what most people that look for bottles love. You you actually the lines are what most now now having it go through and get in the way of the booths and all that, like you, but last year where it was in that section where the line and what it was it was almost perfect because though put it this way, if everybody got every bottle that they wanted, bourbon wouldn't be big.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

It's just like you well, it's you can't remember remember that you just said that, Jeffrey, when you're boohooing special.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

I don't boo, I don't, I I didn't, I was sad. I'm not boo-hooing. I I just was telling you that story about the thing because I was good. I didn't, I the guy skipped me.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Made a point that I listen to, and we do listen. We actually read the social media, we listen to people, we ask the questions, we do a post-event survey, and then I go through and review every every one of them, and the lines people are used to standing in lines, to your point. Every day you go to Buffalo Trace, every day you go to Evan Hill, every day you go to Bean, the home place. Makers are there's lines, but there's also at least a higher degree of likelihood that they're going to get a bottle that they're looking for when they're those lines. That's not always the case at the Bourbon Festival. So we've been working with the three or four top distilleries that have the lines since actually before last year's festival, but since we've met two or three times, like what is the solution? How can we help you? But how can you be a part of the solution to where our fans that are standing in line can be told they're gonna be disappointed, right? What I don't want is someone disappointed and then angry because the person in front of them got the last bottle and they could have been told they weren't gonna get a bottle. And then for me and for the other distilleries, that person has been in line for half an hour, 45 minutes, hour, and they're not out communicating and interacting with all the other distilleries. So we're working on how do we communicate. Like there's 80 bottles. If you aren't in this group, if you're your back, you're probably not gonna get that bottle. You're welcome to stay in line and buy the other things or whatever, but otherwise, I'm sorry, but I'd rather have you out. So we're working on that. We're working on how to meet that demand.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

Two things that that I saw last year that they were addressing that. One was Maker's Mark.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Yep. Maker's Mark did an awesome thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

They gave out bungs, the amount of bungs that they had for bottles. All right. Then Heaven Hill saw what was going on, so they actually come out and they knew how many bottles they had. They they finally came out and they counted down the line, and it's like there's a stop-off point. And you know, if you're back behind this, then you're probably not gonna be able to get a bottle. And that's what they told them. You know, you're welcome to stay in line for the uh the rest of the bottles that we have, but for this bottle, this is where the cutoff is, and those those two distilleries I No, like I said, tried to address that last year. And I'm trying to work.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

And beam Beam has been really good at all along on this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

They addressed it.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

And and you know, part of the early problems were people that just wanted a sample were co-mingling with people that were there to buy bottles and wait in line for a half hour for a sample. Well, that's kind of disheartening. Like I I'm I wasted half my day, and then all I wanted was a pour. So we started two, three years ago, like communicating. This is a sampling line, this is a buying line. And you know, I mean, and Jeffrey, you're right. I mean, we talked about the lines a couple years ago. I was up in my office on the third floor looking out over the festival grounds, and I saw these lines, and I thought, my God, we've ruined ruined my festival. I mean, I wanted this like really cool hangout in the park walking around sampling, and we've turned it into this like monster. And you can't put the genie back in the bottle. I mean, the bottle sales changed, but that doesn't mean mean we can't still try to recreate that, you know, kind of a cool vibe and manage those lines to where it doesn't impact the other distilleries or the other you know, other guests that are there. But yeah, I kind of gave up on on that. I stopped losing sleep over the lines because it is part of part of the culture. And and these again, when I stood there for half an hour, not one complaint about the lines or anything. It was all like, hey, did you try this? We went here. And it's just it just as they move up in line, and all of a sudden, you know, you know, next thing you know, you're there on deck ready to buy. And I gotta roll with it too. You know, I I can't just I can't fight the the culture. Sometimes you have to kind of like just get in the river and go along with it and and still try to improve the experience, but fight it.

New Upgrades Speakeasy And Suites

SPEAKER_03 47:18

I mean the experience go ahead and last. The last two years is uh I specifically, and me and Jeff talked, uh Tiny talked about this, is that I specifically go out. That's when I'm walking out around out there, I actually stop and talk to, you know, grab a couple, a couple or or a person, you know, that's just got some time to kill, and I'll come up to them and I'll ask them, tell them who I am and all this, and ask them if I can interview them and just ask them about the festival. And I ask them those questions, you know, what they like, where they're from, what they like about the festival, or what they've dislike about the festival. And the last two years I have just a couple maybe negative, negative things about it. But everybody has always been positive in my interviews with them about the things and the way the festival has been going.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Well, and the things that bug me, the the biggest thing is uh Friday, Saturday, Sunday of the festival, we recognize a problem and we can't fix it for another year. That drives me nuts. So there were things like last year, and for the first time, people were queuing around the block to get in. And I mean, I was walking uptown, you know, to the bank to get our petty cash. And I'm like, why are all these people facing the wrong direction? Then I realized they were going up and wrapped around the block. But there were people out there at midnight or one o'clock in the morning wanting to be, you know, first in line for like general mission to come in at noon. And then down the street at our VIP gate, there were people showing up at five or six or seven o'clock and also waiting for GA. And I realized right then and there the VIP gate is VIP only, but at noon, we were letting people in that were only there for two or three hours, and other people there were like for 12 hours to wait to get in. So we fixed that this year. That VIP gate is gonna be VIP only for the first hour or two hours, I mean. So from 11 to 1, no general mission. You you have to go to the main gate, and we're also creating a second general mission gate. So we'll have one VIP gate to get those people in, and then two, the main general mission gate. Anybody who's been there will know that the structure with the barrels and everything in it, and then down into the craft area, we're gonna have a secondary general mission gate just to get people in the gates faster and get them, you know, get their glass tour in their hand and and get them on and join the and join the festival. But it's bugged me that I knew the answer last year on a Saturday and I couldn't I couldn't fix it until this year. Okay, awesome. But I know a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 49:58

It's gonna be happy about that.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Well, and it's it's all it's all about fairness, right? I mean, I'm also a consumer. I've been to festivals, I've been to concerts, I've been in places where why does that guy get to do that? And why do I, you know, so I mean, people forget that that I'm also you know, someone who's also a consumer that stands in lines and buys things and has expectations of experiences. And so I always try to factor in how I would feel if I was that person standing there, you know, cueing around the line around the block, and only to find out that some guy showed up three hours ago gets to waltz right in and get to the distilleries, you know, in bottles before I do, or at the same time as I do, with less investment of time. So you know, we're tiny. How many times do our our our trips to Lambeau Field turn into two-hour you know debriefs on on festivals and what we should be doing for helping people get in? Or you telling me don't worry about that. That's part of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Right. Or or last time, I don't know because where we went and we got into that luxury box, we weren't talking much, much. I wish the Packers would have played better in that game. It wasn't a bad game, but it just that one that game, but that was amazing for that one.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

But Well, and our and our host in that in that suite is joining us this year at the Bourbon Festival.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

That's awesome. That is awesome. I make sure to say hi. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

But no, I mean it it just we never we never mail it in. Anybody watching watching this knows that there's no cookie cutter, and I don't do that. We we don't we don't change things just for the sake of change. We change things and make improvements, hopefully, for the experience. But until you actually test it out, you don't know. You you can you can speculate that it's it's gonna be the thing that fixes it. Uh, you know, and Stacey is constantly talking with the distilleries and bouncing ideas, or we sit there one-on-one, like, what if we did this? How about we do that? Then we go to the distilleries and kind of test it and see what their feedback is. But we've also been told that we are by far the most accommodating whiskey event that the distilleries go to. Usually you go and there's the set of rules here, your handbook, this is what you can do, you can't do, you set up, you tear it down, you can't do this. And we really are partners with our distilleries, and we try to bend over backwards and make sure that they are able to, you know, represent the brand and and do that engagement piece that's so important. Because when you come to Bardstown and the Bourbon Capital of the World, and I'm adamant about this, when when you come up to these distilleries, you are literally talking to the people that make it.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

There's no mailing it in.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

They don't mail, they don't any if you go to any other whiskey event in the country or in the world, there are some people you're not gonna have the master distiller, the and the and the executives, the blenders. You're gonna have a third-party agency wearing the branded shirt and pouring and smiling and giving you and selling bottles, but you're not gonna have a Connor or Driscoll or Brent Elliott, you're or Denny and Jane. You're you're not gonna have them. You know, I mean, Freddie shit, like a couple years ago, Freddie's birthday was during the festival, and he's sitting out in front of the beam tent carving ham. Yeah, I mean, you're not gonna get that anywhere else in the world.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

Or take or giving out shots of off the ham.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

Right. I did one. Oh my gosh, that that was crazy. When he was like, I did one of those, I don't know where I did. Why did I do that?

SPEAKER_01 53:23

Oh, let's we're not even gonna talk about that because that social media had to be erased. You didn't do that.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

No, no, no. Anyway, but I mean, literally, it's I I tell people that have never been, it's it's like going to Lollapalooza or Coachella, and you just have this backstage pass or farm made. I was backstage at FarmAid the first year, and I'm walking around. There's Mellon Camp. Oh my god, there's Kenny Irina. Oh, that's young. Oh my god, Willie Nelson's here, and oh John Fogarty, holy cow! And and that's what it is at the bourbon festival. You're walking along, you've got Brent Elliott, you've got you know, Fred No. One of my favorite photos that I took with my phone was Fred Noah and Chris Morris, and they're new on the main stage, and I grabbed them. I'm like, come on, guys, we gotta go. And they're just having fun. They probably had a few cocktails in them, and it's just the literally the icons of this industry are all there at the festival. And the up-and-comers, I mean, you remember Macaulay before Macaulay was even a thing, you know, Wilderness Trail, he was the guy doing the single barrel stuff. And last year, dark arts dominated. I mean, they were the bell of the ball, and you know, they killed it. And so you see people like that coming into their own at the festival.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Are you gonna are you gonna try and outdo the wedding? Are you gonna have a wedding there this year at Kentucky Perth? That that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 54:46

But it won't be it won't be double o'cate and me.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

No, okay. Oh, you you guys aren't gonna try and one up Macaulay, huh? No, just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

We're we're going to we're going to uh Spain and and uh Italy after the festival to do all of that. But no. Perfect. But I mean, the cool thing I love in this festival, I've been trying to to push this, is the Kentucky Bourbon Festival has kind of become the equivalent of the consumer electronic show in Vegas, where the new iPhones come out and and the the distilleries are bringing out their new brands, they're launching new product. I mean, hell, a couple years ago, Larrickin was Lawrenceburg at the beginning of the festival, and they put the big yellow kangaroo and they rebranded. Rebranded right at the festival. Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

I mean, the you can at some festivals get a distiller or some distilleries there, but it's not all. There's a lot, but at Kentucky Bourbon Festival, pretty much everybody who's anybody is there. Now, I just wanted we've covered all that. So what's new this year? What have you what what what fun thing are you what is when we walk in, what what awe thing that you always do to us? I mean, you know, are there gonna be six double decker tents or what what what's what's what's happening this year as far as you know what you what you got planned for everybody?

SPEAKER_03 56:08

Last year was a huge cigar area, actually two cigar areas.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Well, we're we're at least minimum bringing that back, Nash. No, we're moving porta potties around. That'll be an immediate wow for you, Jeffrey. But I'm bumped. But I'm bumped. No, I mean, no, we are we we are constantly trying to make better use of the space we have. You know, we're landlocked. But what we're what we're wanting to do is given the the change in the industry, and you know, I'm it the downturn, the re leveling, you know, it's being felt. The distilleries are feeling it. The our major sponsors, the architects, the engineering firms, the construction companies, they're all failing it. I mean, distilleries just aren't cooperages, the cooperages, too.

SPEAKER_01 56:57

The cooperages are filling it big time.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

So my vision a couple years ago, and uh many of you know I came from Kentucky Derby, Churchill Dowles, and they had a lot of corporate hospitality. Derby is all about the ATTs, you know, the big corporations, buying suites to entertain their big clients at the Kentucky Derby. And the same thing like uh PGA, Valhalla. So we're looking at the Bourbon Festival as forget that the the sponsor might be uh part or not part of the industry, but why not ATT or why not Ford being able to entertain their big clients at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival? So um wow so we're introducing this year a speakeasy concept where even a GA ticket, you can buy an upgrade almost like a mini VIP. You can upgrade for the day, you get into a small venue with a dedicated bar and some catering, and then even further, you can rent out little suites. And and you two both remember two years ago the double decker with the cigar lounge upstairs. Yeah. Picture the cigar lounge on that double decker on the ground, same size, the three little 10 by 10 semi-private suites, but on the ground. That's that's kind of the concept. But we're hoping to grow that in years going forward to where you don't necessarily have to be a company that is directly involved in the industry. You can just be you could be a bank, insurance company, whatever, and you just want to bring your top clients or make maybe it's an employee appreciation thing, you you bring them to the bourbon festival. So as we get some more space available behind us there where that construction project's going, I see that really being kind of the new thing that we're going into. Is it won't take away from the experience that the bourbon enthusiasts love. It won't detract from the the distilleries and the and the corporate folks that are in the industry, but it's a little extra value added, and we'll have some more fun with some people that are typically not at the festival.

SPEAKER_03 59:00

So we rented out one of the Angels Envy cigar booths year before last that year, and I actually uh spent the time with uh Stephen Fonte. So we actually didn't do a podcast, but we did just a live live broadcast of all of us sitting around and doing cigars and joining some Angels Envy. But we also, because of a little mix-up, we actually shared that booth with another group because they didn't have enough booth. So we invited them in. Angel Envy uh come up, or the people that were running that that top shelf actually asked us if we'd mind if we could put it put a couple more chairs in there, and no, we didn't. So we actually had two groups in the booth and enjoyed that whole venue that year.

SPEAKER_00 59:50

Well, and and I I'm the first one to admit I'm not a cigar guy, uh, but I we've real I'm really committed to showcasing and elevating the cigar component into the festival. So that's probably one of the areas that we have struggled the most with. Like, I know I want to do it, I don't know how to do it. I mean, I know how to do it, I just don't know who the players are. And you know, the the deployment cigar guys have been great, they're fun to hang out with. Uh David Webb, you know, David Webb comes in and does his Friday broadcast. We've got a national audience on Sirius XM. But that's probably if if you want to know where I want to go in the future with KBF, I want to figure out a way to really blow up the cigar lounge concept. And but it's very polarizing, and you probably know that. Like some distilleries really embrace cigar and that culture, and some are like, I don't want a cigar within 50 yards of my place. And so, and and some people like me, health-wise, I can't be around any smoke, but I know it's part of the culture. Just I I struggled, you know, at Churchill Downs with that too, because cigars and horse racing is just you know, as much as cigars in bourbon, but that's probably one area where that I'm really hoping to grow and have that a separate destination within the destination is a first-class, world-class type cigar and bourbon mingling experience.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:19

So talk with talk with Steven Fonte could probably maybe get you like Rocky Patel in there. I mean, they they go they've been over there too, Rocky Patels, and actually have their own cigars made for limestone. Let's see, that's what I need.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

Like Alec and Bradley. I mean the guys at Justice House Burns. Alec and Bradley. You know, I I know enough to know that I don't know. You know, it's like, and I'm not afraid to admit it, but I mean, I I don't know if we need to align with a major cigar brand or a just wholesaler that you know represents the top brand. Yeah, but yeah, you know, I can't just do it and not and be able to monetize it. I mean, unfortunately, the reality is we need you know sponsors and and you know, I can't just dedicate a space that and have zero money, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

No, oh no, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

I mean what I don't want to do it half-ass either, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

Yeah, it's just like putting together a pick-popp puzzle. You've got to have all the right pieces to to fit together.

Sponsors Swag And Americana Theme

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Well, a couple years ago, I I decided like we really needed to go after and and showcase the bourbon culture. If people had the money to spend seven thousand dollars on a VIP package with us, and they drop another twenty-thirty thousand dollars on bottles, then they're probably pretty desirable consumers in the real world outside of that. And so, you know, we went out and talked to Oris and Oris watches. Yeah, and they came in, it took me two years to get them in, and then the president of Oris North America has been at the festival the last two years, and they after this festival, they told me that we were their number one event that they do every year for for sales, and they get that, they understand that the bourbon culture means that if you like to spend the money on the bourbon, you probably have a nice vehicle, you probably like other vacations, you probably golf and have really good equipment, and you need a timepiece. So if if you look at lawn jeans as the brand of thoroughbred horse racing and look at Rolex and Taguar in auto racing, I've told them, I said, I want Ouris to be associated with the bourbon culture, and and they get it. So that that it's fun to see that. I mean, we're very selective on who we talk to because we don't want the insurance company and the gutter guards and the bath bathtub and the kitchen remodelers. Well, that's we used to have the festival, and that has that has nothing to do with with the culture. But you know, when when we when we do connect in the Retro 51 guys, the pen that we're doing this year, you've seen the pens. First year was Canton Cooper to donated the open for the for the barrels of the pen. In fact, I've got one right here, conveniently. Oh well. Last year we did one that looked like the the column on a column still. Huge success. This year we're going all in Americana, obviously, because the America 250. But though those pens are 90 to 100 a piece new MSRP, and there's rabid collectors that those pens go up into the hundreds of dollars. So when you come to the Bourbon Festival and you're one of the bourbon enthusiasts, you get one of these limited edition pens in your swag bags. But again, that's one of those most people don't want to just drop$100 on a pen, but KBF attendees you know appreciate that that quality. So Jeffrey, are you looking for your pen or what?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:53

Yeah, my pen is always right around and just for all a sudden, I'm sure it's buried behind a bottle because I went. And so I was just look- I have it. I mean, it's always right here. I mean, it's in its case.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:10

It's gonna be killer. It's gonna be red, white, and blue, and and kind of the old school, I almost like a Betsy Ross Americana feel. But I'm really, I'm really proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

Well, I think I think also you're gonna get a lot of the distilleries with their 250th anniversary bottle for the the the country. So when you get ready to get those bottles when you get go there, because I'm pretty sure they're gonna have those releases at the festival. There's no doubt that there's gonna be what would you say, an American Patriot theme to this year's festival. You really get that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:46

And and two years ago, I told the team that if we got over a million dollars in ticket sales, go get a tattoo. And I did uh the logo on the back of my right calf, you've seen it.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:58

But this year I'm I'm feeling I did I I didn't promise anything or I didn't like commit to doing something, but um I'm kind of feeling like our our artwork. I'm gonna try to pull it up here real quick on the phone. But this, I don't know how it'll it'll show. Yep, the eagle. The eagle with the glen. Oh with the glen, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

Oh wow, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

That may or may not be committed to ink somewhere on me.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

On your chest? 35th anniversary. Right across your chest. I'm cute.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

35 35 years of KBF, though. That's very humbling. And and yeah, we talk about what the festival has been since 2020, but for a moment, I'd like to focus on what it was up to that point because I've been a volunteer on many, many, many festivals, many struggling festivals. And this festival would not have made it to year 30 without the the local community and the commitment of a lot of volunteers and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And you know, some some of the pushback and the chaos that that was created when I came in was based on that. A lot of people put a lot of their heart into that former model of the festival and and taking nothing away from them. It just wasn't what the what the distilleries needed it to be going forward. So I I made it what they told me they needed it to be. But I never want to take anything away from those great people because there are still people that are proud to come up and say, I was on that first board. Directors and and some say I love what you've done, other people like eh not so much, but you know, we're we're celebrating 35 years because the last six years we listened to the distilleries and gave them what they told us it needed to be. So I'm very proud of that. But I'm also very proud of the community that lifted this thing up, and you know, a lot of a lot of festivals fail three, four, five years in. Well, they fail. It might be a great concept, but they fail for uh any number of reasons. But this thing lived for 29 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

Well, the community because the community and the distilleries supported it, the support of the distilleries is what kept it going. And uh and in 2019, when you weren't there and we went, there's a lot of stuff that was happening. I I will tell you the the highlight of the festival, besides the VIP experience. Okay, I we uh I saved up so I could have a day in the VIP, which is in your offices, you know, the Brendy Ammo, you know, yeah penthouse. That's where that's where the VIP was, and that was great.

Honouring Volunteers And Old Traditions

SPEAKER_00 1:08:40

It was the first year, 2021. I kept it up there, if you remember. Right, but it was hotter than hell with two window air conditioners, a flow elevator, and a and a bathroom that was out of commission half the time. But uh VIP.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

But that 2019 festival was the the highlights of everything. The the gala was off-site. You had to go to the gala. There was a lot of the cigar thing was over at the and there's still events over off-site, but the main events are still right there. And then the other thing is, is I'll say the barrel race that happens still to this, you know, right now with the teams. That was the highlight of the festival, honestly. That was like uh it was like you were going to the barrel racing, it was a yeah, in 2019. That was a barrel racing sporting event, and then all the distilleries had tents, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:37

Pause on that for a second. The the World Championship Bourbon Barrel Relay. Yep, it's the only one of its kind. And Jeffrey, you and I both, you know, Wisconsin, the the lumberjacket competition up in Hayward.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:48

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:48

I mean, it was that unique. It still is that unique. You get the warehouse workers out there, and it's amazing to watch.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:56

You know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:56

500 full barrels.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

We need to get just like the log of logging events, we need to actually turn that's something we could turn as far as part of the festival into you get ESPN to cover it.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:10

Jeffrey, I have been in communication with ESPN and ESPN Ocho, and that's a real thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:17

It's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:19

But I've watched the the Wisconsin Auctioneers Championship.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:23

I've watched accidentally, I've watched the lumberjack thing is insane what they do now with the with the chainsaws or the axes. I mean, they're fighting right there and just hacking away. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:36

I've tried, and I even knew somebody that was in charge of game the college game day, you know, the college football game. Yeah. And I'm pitching the like you guys are covering lawn dart competitions during COVID because there's no sporting events. You need to come see this, and I don't know why, but I I we couldn't ever get them synced up. But it is absolutely the most unique sporting event that I've ever seen. I mean, we watched the Winter Olympics. Curling seemed to be on every hour of every day.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:05

It was on all every day.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:08

And I love curling. I almost I am just a little background. I was almost the executive director of Team USA Curling. Back coming out coming out of the Wisconsin State Fair. I talked to Team USA about being, and I knew nothing about curling other than I I saw it happen at the at the at the Pettit.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

Well, yeah, that's that's the training facility, if anybody knows when you're speed skating. Yep, for speed skating and then other ice, you know, yeah, yeah, events.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:39

And during the Wisconsin State Fair when it's 90 degrees out, it just it was a good air conditioned place to hang out for a little bit and cool off. But but anyway, so I mean the the barrel relay is absolutely something that would that deserves to be covered on ESPN.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

Yeah, I mean I this is what got me following the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and actually how I met Jeff 2019. Me and Sherry, we we came up and met uh my in-laws, they came to Makers Mart. So to pick up their barrel, their their barrel that they had, you know. And uh so we drove up to meet them after we left them. I forget the the barrel relay was not actually in Bargetown that year, was it?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:29

No, it was. Or was it? It was no in 2019 it was on the the behind the church on the where the yeah, it was on St. Joseph's school's um their their little area where the playground is now.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

Yeah, and then it plotted the next year. Yeah, so then that's that's where when we were driving by and I saw that, so I was like, hey, let's pull over, let's check this out. And then they found out that that's what was going on was the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. So then when I came back home, that's when I started following uh the Facebook page of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, saw pictures that Jeff posted where he was getting the painting signed by Fred and Freddie Noah, right? And his tux and all. Yeah, that's when I messaged him and right out of the blue and said, And introduce and introduce yourself? Yeah, and just introduce myself as a hand. You know, I just happened to have a bottle of bookers that has almost the same old serial numbers as your painting.

Barrel Relay As A Sport

SPEAKER_01 1:13:30

And that's how me and Jeff got to talking. I mean, honestly, Randy, I mean, he he introduced himself, and I'm like thinking, and then all of a sudden he's like, I got that bottle of bookers, I want to share it and come up by you. And I'm like, who's gonna say no to that?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:47

Both our wives are like, or Sherry, he was with well, not married yet, but my wife you don't know Tim, you're gonna fly up there.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:54

I said, Yeah, I know him. I've talked to him for three months over the phone. I've shipped him, I've shipped him bottles of whiskey that he can't get.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:02

And then every single year after that, you you never you never fail to humble people, Nash. I mean, I knew you. I mean, obviously we met on you know here, but yeah, like at the the very first year for the Bourbon Festival, you know, I I opened up my door front door one day, and you know, there's that really nice weler sitting there. And so you're you're a very good human being, and and and uh I always appreciate your generosity. Well, we all that's my dad in in in heaven.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:35

But like I say, he's a that's the way he raised me to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:39

Well, we we appreciate you all you everything, Randy. Yeah, thank you for doing what you do with this festival. We can't wait this year. Now, there's gonna be now just quickly, you got the add-ons for the tickets. Now, anybody who got tickets, just run over that, what they need to do at this point.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:59

Yeah, the first couple of years we sold festival tick admission tickets only, and then partly because we didn't have commitments from the distillers to be able to offer like the the premium education until National Bourbon Day. So the original model was May 15th, tickets on sale April 14th or June 14th, 15th was when the secondary add-ons would be for sale. And the last couple years we condensed them into one sales opportunity. But what what we believe last year, a lot of the chaos around getting their admission tickets, they were putting their VIP tickets in the cart and then going back and then trying to buy their premium education, and then they go back to the cart, and the cart was wiped out. So this year we said, let's just tap the brakes, let's focus on getting people in the door first. So the the last two days have been about admission tickets only. We've got all the premium things ready to go, so all your cocktail culinary education. And last year we started allowing people to rent their lockers for the weekend. And this year we're we're offering shuttles so people can actually buy like their daily shuttle pass on the Tixar website. And I don't know, there's something else. What else we own? Shirts, locker, shuttles.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:17

You can already rent your lockers, right? Right now. That's they're already on sale from the locker company.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:24

Well, uh, maybe, yeah. I mean, maybe I mean we're gonna promote that through the through the tick star, but I think you probably can go on.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:32

I saw I saw it because they had sent me an email here because you rented one last year. About two weeks ago. And that the you can and their their ad actually on Facebook too was you can already get your rent your lockers for the Kentucky Bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:48

But they hate you, Nash. I didn't get that email. There's a reason why, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:54

Well, we're gonna start promoting that next Thursday and Friday, so April 23rd and 24th.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:00

Same locker company as always, same guys. Yeah, yes. I I love I love your locker company. That they are such a great, they just do such a great job.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:10

Yeah, those guys are too. And thank you. And they're they're based out of Chicago, which I won't hold against uh I don't either. But when I ran when I ran Stadium ops for the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns, they were the locker company there. And you know, if you're tailgating and you get up to the main gate and the metal detector catches your pocket knife or whatever, and you don't want to go back to your car or hotel, there was lockers right there that you could rent for the game for like$25 or whatever, and you could put your, you know, all that stuff in your wife's purse and everything. So I kept that contact and I brought them in a couple years ago, but we've grown now to we're gonna have almost 1100 lockers available. And the VIPs this year will continue to get a complimentary locker, first come, first serve, and then the other half the inventory will be you can reserve them, rent them for the day or for the weekend. So, but that's one of the things. So all of the the add-ons, like the premium, and anybody from a general admission person up to a VIP person can go in and kind of customize a la carte their experience based on you know, either the the presenter, you want to see so-and-so speak, or you want to like learn how to make a better cocktail or learn how to cook with with bourbon, those those will all be offered. And we wanted to separate it. Let's get people's tickets and now let's take a breath, and now we can you know do the add-ons later.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:33

So or if you want to have breakfast with Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson, you can do that on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

They're they're phenomenal. Dan has been nothing but great. When you were talking about the Mickters experience that you guys had as a team, I will say anybody who's at the festival and you get a chance to meet Dan or Andrea, they are fantastic people making great, great whiskey. That that like we got to do a podcast there to get to see the same thing that you did and then sent over. And then me and Roxy, when we were down going down to Florida, we met up with Dan just to have lunch at the at the place, and he was nothing but it was it was a spectacular experience. So you got them there.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:25

But sometimes I run into personalities that take me a little bit to figure out. Andrea was one of those, and I I love Andrea now, but I mean the first year it was kind of and Steve Coombs and Andrea are I'm like, but it's just I don't think she likes me. And and he's like, no, no, no. So I get into Andrea's good graces, and her husband's name is Randy, so that helps. But then Dan was another one of those where I thought first, you know, because sometimes these master sellers can be so nerdy, they lack personality. I thought that was Dan, and then my God, I get to know Dan, and what I mean, he is just he's hilarious and dry, a dry sense of humor, and we just had so much fun because he was throwing zingers in, and but I mean to see that side of these icons in in the industry, I never, I never not appreciate those opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:18

Dan is Dan is the most normal guy distiller there ever was with unbelievable there's mad respect because you know they know what they're doing completely. And then, you know, from the start, he liked us.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:36

This, you know, this he came in and he's once he's comfortable with you and he opens up. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:41

He's just I mean, I walked in with Andrew a minute late, you know, which is my MO. If it's a 10 o'clock barrel pick, I show up at 1001. I'm texting Stacy to say, I'm parking, I'm sorry. But I walk in and immediately he starts giving me shit. I'm like, a year ago, Dan probably wouldn't have done that, but he was like on me, and it was so fun, it was so cool to see that. I think you're all different like that. Fred, no. I mean, you know, Fred is Fred, but there's Fred will also open up to you and kind of talk to you, you know, behind the scenes a little bit. Freddie, you know, just Brent and Elliott. I mean, there's so many of these personalities that you think one thing and then you get to know the people. And and I told Denny, Denny and Jane, when I first started in this industry, makers mark in my brain was okay, it was there. I I knew it was a bourbon. I didn't think of it as great, I didn't think of it as not great. It was just kind of in the middle, very recognizable brand, until you get to know Danny and Jane, and then you get to know Bill and Rob, and then you know, you know, I mean, it's just the the it just you actually can fall in love with a brand and appreciate it more once you get to know the people that make it. And that and that's kind of the way I feel about this industry, you know like what I knew six years ago, and what I know now, and the people I knew, and my perception of the brands and how they've changed for the positive because I've gotten to be friends with the people that make it. It's just it's very, it's very cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:11

Well, also you're saying that it's not just because you got to know them, it's because they have changed. We would what what you just kind of sometimes you just sit back and you grasp, like you think that you're not part of it, that you're you know, you're covering it, but then all of a sudden they treat you like family, and you're definitely part of it, and they appreciate you appreciate them, they appreciate you. But I will tell you, when you first, you know, those years ago, you didn't Maker's Mark was very vanilla, and they're not vanilla anymore. They have evolved into one of the leaders, what they're doing with their their their um farming techniques and then strength. Yeah, yeah, their cast strength, their private selects, their seller aged. I mean, they have evolved into the industry out of necessity of what they had to do. They've done it. The same thing, what you're talking about with Macaulay, where he's gone, where Penelope has gone. I mean, it's like right now, when you think of it, you got LuxCo, you got Penelope and Limestone Branch, and they're basically owned by an Indiana company, but all three of them, when they get together, they're like at a festival, they're a powerhouse. That's like a powerhouse lineup.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:28

And it's the same the Lux, the Lux family name is still there. And they told me after that, after the sale with MGP and everything, that as long as the Lux name is there and on the door, they're still gonna be who they are.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:44

No, that talk. Well, we just had Danny on for from Penelope, and you know, he was he stayed on like like you stay on, and we were just having a good time. But we knew Danny before when he was, you know, it's just like the guy, it's like Kenny and Ryan, where they are with Bourbon Pursuit, you know, they were they were podcasters. Now they have Pursuit United, and as they keep going forward, but but I knew them in 2020, and I know the and you as you go through this with the people, you know, even with Macaulay, you know, it's just like, and then how they treat you and what they they look at us, you know. Macaulay's like, I made you. Because, you know, we he just says straight up, oh, there she is. All right, okay, double okay. It's it's time it's that's the cue.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:34

I there's a traveling for 11 days, I feel like. Then you need to get an Alcatraz last night.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:40

Now she's yeah, I saw that post.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:43

Solo Alcatraz. Did you did they lock you up in the solitary confinement room?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:49

No, it was very oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:52

When I was there, they they put the group in the solitary confinement room and shut the door. You could not see your hand in front of your face. It was such a spoopy, eerie place. Oh my gosh, it was an experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:08

While she was been gone, I built our own little solitary confinement. I saw it there.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:12

So do you like the nook? Do you like it, Kate?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:16

Yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:17

I thought so. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:19

But she didn't see the feature where I can like actually lock her underneath the nook overnight to give her that whole you know, solitary confinement.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:29

Knowing Kate, she's probably crawling in.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:33

No, but anyway, so yeah, double okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:37

Yes, it's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:39

And that's that's her cue that we need to I need to leave.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:42

I know it definitely is. I said to do that, and it and for sure. If you want to check out, you can just sign out and then we'll finish up the podcast and invite everybody. But I think you did a great job. I love the shirt.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:59

El Presidente and Scotchy Bourbon Boys on the sleeve.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:04

Plus Kentucky Bourbon Festival right across the chest.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:08

I think I think I think Carl should make us all Kentucky Bourbon Festival Scotchy Bourbon Boys shirts so that we're just a team.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:17

Miss again. And my appearance tonight was brought to you home.

Add Ons Lockers Shuttles Education

SPEAKER_01 1:26:20

I'll miss you too. Roxy misses you, Kate, Kate, and she can't wait to. She's gonna try and make the the Burban Day. No, no, May 9th. I'm gonna see you guys. Oh, at the how far away are you from uh is it Waverly?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:39

No, no, no, we're not.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:42

The insane asylum, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:43

The Indy No, we're not we're not going to Waverly, we're going up somewhere in Indy.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:47

Yeah, the Indian it's the it's the Indiana Insane Asyl the Asylum for the Insane. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:56

So people who are watching, we all went and spent the night at at the Ohio Reformatory, which is also known as Shawshank. The Shawshank Redemption. We've been in there twice, but we spent the night in there. It was amazing. And now we're going into another place that sounds like there's a lot more activity than are you guys booking a room that night?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:18

And just are you guys sleep?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:19

You go you go all night. No, we're sleeping there.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:22

Okay, you're gonna sleep there. So uh that's Roxy's gonna try and make it, but she has someone due on that day, so she's hoping they go early so she can come.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:31

But I'm we're gonna go over to the that the most crazy activity went, and I'm gonna like dare the ghost to hit me up and you can put a force field on us.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:42

So, what I'll do is instead of putting a uh well for protection, but I'm gonna do some what would you say? We'll we'll work on making sure they come out. I've been I ever since that time I've been working on my skills that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:01

I mean, that time that I walked over you with a can of Coke and a water drip on your head, and you thought a ghost hit. What the shit? What the shit?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:09

What the shit, yeah. Right behind in the break room. Anyway, this has nothing to do with bourbon, but yeah, but then you'll see you'll you'll see me or and her then, and then I should I'm I'm coming down in June for the thing, but I'm trying to get her. We should just we should just plan something and do something. Because she definitely misses misses you guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:33

That's my philosophy for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Plan something, do something.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:37

You're you we're gonna you know what? At the festival, you're gonna be doing stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:45

Nash, cheers, buddy. All right, cheers, brother. All right, cheers and wait, cheers, you guys along. Can't wait to see you.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:53

Yep, we'll finish up.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:55

Is this where I'm supposed to leave, or do I hang on?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:58

No, you can leave. No, it's this one you should leave.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:03

We have nobody even watching us.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:05

That's not true at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:07

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

No, there's people watching.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:10

Just a big shout out to New Rift Distillery this year's is it the sponsor sponsor distiller.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:17

Feature distiller.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:19

Okay. Wanted to get that right. Thanks to Randy Cross, El Presidente for coming on and letting everybody know about the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, 2026 Kentucky Bourbon Festival. The 35th anniversary, correct? That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:34

That's right. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:35

We'll do things are coming, and it's going to be a great time. Thanks everybody for watching and tuning in tonight.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:41

And look for Randy's August podcast, too, because right before in August, usually we put one down just so he could tell everybody what he's solidified for the whole festival because there's always surprises.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:55

Also, Devil O'Kade is fading fast.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:58

There you go. Good night.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:01

Keep tuning in to the KBF website because we'll do.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:05

Hey, Nash. Nash. Nash for the tickets. Nash. Let him go. We can do all that stuff once he's gone. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:13

I don't care. I'm hanging out.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:15

You know me. I I'm not, I don't have anything planned until 11 o'clock tonight. So solitary confinement.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:28

Love you too, man. We'll see you soon. All right. All right. All right. Good night. All right. That was cool. There we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:38

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:39

Yeah, the festival is going to be fantastic. I mean, I for what what we thought was going to happen, we just had no idea. And and I think we put it all together, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:54

Yeah, I think we did. And like I say, gave us a lot of information, got everybody a lot of information and all.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:01

And uh I mean, I'll just let's just let's just to recap, the festival sold out in two days. I mean, they had everybody, it's just for for future. If you've attended the festival or you sign up on their website, you get the ability to buy tickets the day before tickets go on sale. VIP and regular tickets. Who's what? Who just kicked checked in? Because I've been updating this thing and nobody's been checking in. Let's see.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:34

Matt Matt just checked in and said it's a blast. They have Rio there, Chris Thompson.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:42

Yeah, that's usually what Matt says. He likes Rio. All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:48

I like Rio.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:49

So Kirk is in, he's from Montana.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:52

I like the 1792 2024 KBF barrel pick.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:59

Well, I will tell you. I know I have that. Oh my god. I don't think I've opened it because it's signed, right? Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:12

Signed right there. We both got that at the same time, didn't we? Ross Cornelson, master distiller.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:25

There it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:26

How is yours signed and mine's not? Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:31

Was it the That's because when we got it, I picked your bottle up for you because you were out busy. I think you were you were with somebody else. Was that the foolproof? No, it's the bottled and bond yellow label. I got the Sazerac distillers. No, you got yours at the same time I did. We were both standing there. Well, it must be deeper in and signed. Oh no. I think they sold out. That's what it was. I got mine. The year before? Came back to the booth, and and you went uh had to wang a little bit, and when you got back, they were sold out.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:20

No, that was the year before. Last year I was I saw him the first booth. I went over there and bought that that 1792 Sazerac Barrel Select Distillers Roll. I've got that.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:34

This is too this is 2024.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:37

Yeah, I'm talking about 2025. You've got it signed. And it's signed by Ross, isn't it? So so I'm gonna make y'all jealous because Thursday from 3 to 5, Ross is gonna be at a place and I'm gonna go there and get it signed, get a bottle signed by Ross. I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:56

Whiskey, whiskey, and it's and he's bringing sweet wheat.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:00

Oh, how do you know that?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:02

Because whiskey told me yesterday. All right. He asked me if uh he wanted me to get pick up a bottle and get it signed.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:11

All right. Well, I'm having sweet wheat right now in honor of Ross coming. But I will say, so everybody look for our August podcast with Randy for everything. But you know, they sell this, they sold it out in two days. I mean, it is becoming intense.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:32

Just the admission tickets. Yeah, it's yeah, yeah. Because that's what I was getting up talking about. If everybody that has bought your admission tickets and you've got your tickets to get in the gate, you still have all your little craft experiences that have not gone on sale yet, which will be going on sale in a I believe you said a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:58

Right?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:00

That you can use the add-ons.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:02

Right. Yep. And I think I think honestly, we've been monitoring the comments, and I told Randy a little bit about that what happened. We won't go into details, but it's just, you know, the festival is at this point like bourbon itself, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:24

Matt Matt says they're they're gonna have sweet wheat, bottled and bond, foolproof, and single girl.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:31

There you go. There you go. I was hoping they'd have cognac. The the the festival is like bourbon. It's like you can't, it's like I I I it's like you everybody doesn't get it. You know what I mean? And now the fact that the tickets sold out in two days, now you can't, now it's hard to even get tickets.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:04

The actual tickets to go. So at one point it was hard to get VIP. It's hard to get VIP still, but it's now hard to get tickets. It's not like you got till August to go to see if you're gonna go or whatever. You have to basically plan this out, have your mainly have your stay ready to go, and then buy tickets on the on the on the first day of the we've been telling each everybody this every year, starting right after the festival.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:33

You know, when we go to recapping the festival, we start telling people right then you need to start planning right now to be ready when tickets go on sale because they're gonna sell out.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:44

If you were lucky enough to get tickets, I mean you're gonna get picks like like you would not believe.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:52

Well, it's yeah, and and fistfulers were the last couple of years are starting to realize that. And the distillers, you know, are really stepping up their game. They're bringing those allocated bottles that everybody wants.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:05

Not only allocated bottles, but the barrel picks specifically for the festival. Whiskey thief, for instance, I'm gonna go grab. I mean, they have some fantastic. Is this it? I think it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:19

Not only that, but it's just like you know, in you know, out in the bourbon world, not everybody's gonna be able to get a bottle.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:29

You know, and if they were, then it wouldn't be that special. Nope. And if you go there, you're gonna get some good bottles. There's no doubt you'll get some.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:39

You're not gonna get every good bottle, right? But you're gonna have to pick and choose on on the what you want, what you want to get in line for and and and get. And that's what makes it that much more special. It's just like bourbon hunting, you know, when you find out about a release and you go get in line. Or like Buffalo Trace, you know, you know, you don't know when you go get in that line if they're gonna release like E.H. Taylor single barrels, a barrel-proof, or you know, or what are the any of the antique collection. Or like, you know, or going like like you're going to Maker's Mart. You don't know when when they're gonna release the like the Cellar Age. You show up and all of a sudden, oh my gosh, they're releasing 200 bottles of Cellar Aged or something. That's the thing about it. And that's what Oh Randy, Randy, he's back on.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:33

What just happened?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:34

What's up?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:34

What what the shit? What the shit?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:38

Yeah. Everybody, cheers. We have no presidented.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:43

I want to start to make sure everybody's in bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:47

And she's and and she's just exhausted, so she's hitting the hay?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:51

Oh, she she had to leave for the airport at four o'clock Pacific time.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:58

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:59

All right. Well, do you are you wrapping up? Well, we'll we can wrap up, but do you want us to throw it out to the to the the people? Oh our good listeners to to join us? Like no. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:14

Uh I I'm supposed to be going to bed here too.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:16

Okay, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:17

I just wanted to see what happened if I clicked on the link and you're still here.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:20

I would just say, what the shit? Yeah, we were just we were just talking about the barrel picks.

Bourbon Demand Normalises And Closing

SPEAKER_03 1:39:31

That people are going to be able to, you know, be able to get and then or not get and and like having to pick and choose. And how we started throwing this out there is like we were just talking about it's like, you know, we start telling people when we start doing a recap of the festival, you know, the week after the festival's over, yeah, and we'll go and and we'll have a podcast and we'll start doing a recap and like talking about the bottles that we got. Whoa, what?

SPEAKER_01 1:39:58

That's a that's an old one. Yeah, because that's the cool thing. Like every year you can revisit.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:05

That's what that's what I started started out with tonight.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:09

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:10

Same year.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:11

I wish the the first year of the rabbit hole. I wish I would have gotten that whole set. I only got two of them. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:20

This has opened up so good. It's just like a caramel bomb. And a little bit of apple. It's like it's like drinking a caramel apple.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:29

Do you have the do you have that collection just uh for Kentucky Bourbon Festival just kind of stored where you like kept the bottle of all the barrel picks and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_00 1:40:38

You've got my office in Barstown. That big shelf in the corner has got one of everything we've done back to the first maker's mark.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:46

Right. And you're not gonna drink it, it's just part of, you know, at one point that you know our history. Yeah. And and the history is, I mean, people don't realize how much everything, everything in Barstown has been upgraded. I mean, since we've been doing this, when you think about this, you know, you think about the tasting rooms, you think about the the museum, the Brendy Amo penthouse, you think about, you know, all the different places and everything's being updated. And yes, you know, the distilleries help update everything, but you know, that's kind of what you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:26

And and Jeffrey, though the to that point, you know, whatever you want to call it, I I think the sky's falling, the whole bourbon bust myth that's being propagated out there is false. I think 2019 bourbon was doing this, the COVID spike you have to account for, but yet the re-leveling is up here. You're still much higher than you were pre-COVID. Oh, yeah. But so distilleries may not be rebuilding and adding on and building new and building rick houses like they were, but the bourbon experience, they're still investing in the restaurants and the and the tasting rooms and the gift shops. So there's there's more of that going on right now than ever before.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:09

So people, still investing in the experience, Randy. So they build all these rick houses, and you Heaven Hill is the classic. That that's the amount, yeah, the amount of rick houses that went in, okay. And now they got to a point where where the stuff is aging in there, okay? But we got to here, but now the demand, they're they're meeting. I mean, Buffalo Trace is meeting the demand, Heaven Hill is starting to meet the demand. When you go to those those releases, unless it's 18 or 20 year, you know what I mean? Those releases have, but at one point though they will catch up. But what's happening is they have all these rick houses, they could just because they're not building more, doesn't mean that they're not emptying this rick house and refilling that rick house again. And and so, yes, some of the some of the production, like at Jim Beam, there they've cut the one distillery production, but they had shut down Boston and it wasn't even a big deal to revamp that distillery and remodel it and everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:18

And now that's the norm. Yes, the industry for 50 years would have summer shutdowns, months, six weeks, two months, yeah, because they needed to do maintenance, painting, upgrading. And during the boom, they couldn't do it. Yeah, and now a lot of and I I hate that that that beam is getting all of this attention in the media because oh, shutting down. Well, no, I mean they're finally able to shut it down and and update you know the fire suppression and all the you know, and and do cleaning and upgrading. And because I mean last week we did a barrel pick at 1792 and Ross was there, but Danny Kahn came in and it was amazing. Yeah, I mean, we we got talking about what Buffalo Trace is doing over there, and and they and you know they doubled their capacity in the last couple of years. They're not slowing down.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:08

I mean, they're Buffalo Trace, the demand for Buffalo Trace is not slowed down.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:14

Now I would I mean when I first moved here, but I could buy I could buy a bottle of Buffalo Trace for$24 and then up to$28, and then during the and all of a sudden Buffalo Trace becomes allocated. So it was 32, it was 38 if you could find it. Now it's back to being available. Weller's back on the shelves, E.H. Taylor's back on the shelves, Blanc's is back on the shelves. But you know, when you go to the when you go to buy at the store, you used to get scan your driver's license and you're you're out for 90 days, now you're out for a day. They scan you for one day and you can go back tomorrow and buy. So it's adjusting to where finally the consumer gets a chance to win.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:53

Right, and right. That's not a bad thing. And then when you think of Heaven Hill, that they've they were making the volume of Jim Beam and then the volume of Heaven Hill behind it, or makers, the volume of Makers mark. Buffalo Trace was a craft distiller. You know, Harlan would tell you they were a craft distiller when he started. They don't have the capacity that beam, when you see what they're doing, it's not the same capacity, even doubled that Buffalo Trace. But what Beam is doing and what Heaven Hill is doing. Those, and then Heaven Hill built another distillery in Barkstown. And their Louisville distillery goes nuts. Plus, they have the little craft distillery at the Evan Williams. So it makes sense that they're all leveling off. They have enough and it's gotta age. And that it's not like they're not selling what they have to sell, they just don't mean the need to make all that much more.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:54

The best the best is ahead. Because I I said, Danny, hey, Buffalo trays could single-handedly ruin the bourbon market by just flooding it, just releasing everything. I I believe. That's my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:06

Oh, yeah, then people wouldn't want it because they could get it.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:09

Is part of the mystique that keeps the industry going. And and if they wanted Sazerac wanted to just release stuff, they could they could ruin the market, but they won't. Just like Beam could do the same thing. But no, I think at this point, you know consumers are happy. I buy, I'm a consumer. I go in like a$24,$26 buffalo trace, or a$26 or$28 makers. I love that because a year and a half, two years ago, it was all in the high 30s, low 40s. And it's just it's you know, normalizing. It's it's it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:43

It's what it should be doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:45

I I am gonna run now. I just wanted to pop in and see if you you two morons were still sitting here.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:49

We were still talking.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:51

Yeah. All right. I love you guys. Hell yeah. Love you too, brother. Love you too, brother.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:55

Yeah, good night. All right, good night.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:57

Thank you. Always thank you. All right, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:00

Good night. Wow. What the shit? All right, so let me let me finish it up. Let's just finish this up right now. We're reviewing, and then we'll bring some people on for a little bit till about 10 30, and then I gotta go. I know you gotta go too supernash, but we kind of owe it to everybody to let them come on, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:47:21

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:22

All right, so everybody, www.scotchybourbonboys.com for all things scotchy bourbon boys, merchandise, Glenn Cairns, everything. Look at that. You know, check that out. And then our shout out to our sponsors, Middle West Spirits in Columbus, Ohio, Whiskey Thief in Frankfurt and the new Louisville area, and the spirit of French lick in French lick Indiana or West Baden. And then, and then as Joe Lee would say, and then thanks, Alan Bishop, for all your sponsorship and everything, and we look forward to you catching back up to Randy Prassey. You know, it's Randy, Greg, and and and Alan just fighting it out as far as our guests for the most time appearing on the Scotchy Bourbon Boys over the years.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:14

And don't forget Old Boover Whiskey Company.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:17

No, well, no, they they're they're not anymore. Amin has decided to take a pause, but you can do a shout out to the old Louisville whiskey company because they're just awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:29

So Amin Carr, Old Louisville Whiskey Company, always will be our good friend and was a sponsor of us for a while. If you ever get a chance, get down to Louisville, Kentucky, and check them out. Yep. Got some good stuff going on. We all always like to like to give a shout out to them anyway.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:50

Yep. And then also remember good bourbon equals good times and good friends.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:56

Good friends. Yep. Drink responsibly, don't drink and drive.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:01

And go out and live your life uncut and unfiltered. And let's let this get rockin' rolling right here. Boom! We had somebody on YouTube from It's the Full Turkey.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:48

What goes on, but it is your time. Lay it out when you are through that door.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:03

So you show the four, I'll show the drain.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:24

Japanese four, you're the poor man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:45

Alright.