497. Single Barrel Season: Previewing Bourbon on the Banks with Diane Strong

Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon. And I'm your host, Todd Ritter.

We've got a great show for you today. So grab your favorite four and join us.

Hey there Bourbon Roadies, it's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. We've got another amazing event coming your way this year. Be sure to join us at the half and I'll give you an update on our ticket availability for the event taking place on October 3rd, 2026.

All right, new listeners and fellow Roadies alike, welcome to another episode. Todd and I have placed our rears in a chair in the corner of Rick House in Frankfurt. We've got some guests with us today. It's going to be a lot of fun. I think these are both folks they already know.

Yeah, familiar faces or familiar voices, I should say. Diane Strong and Bo Cumberland. Welcome back to the show.

Thank you.

We're having them back on the show because sooner than rather than later, it's going to be Burman on the Banks and they're both here to talk about new events and, you know, Bo's, what do you call him? Your videographer?

Yeah. Yeah. He does all of our videos. He does an amazing job and he knows he goes and films at the distilleries that we're featuring and so he knows a lot about them and thought he'd be a good sidekick today.

I didn't know if he was a head of true bourbon on the bank's title is just Bo. Bo, go film this. Just Bo do that.

Just Bo. Bo the best.

Bo the best. But yeah. So, but let's get to that first pour. All right. So what do we have? We've got the James Pepper. This is a single barrel that was chosen for last year's event. And we'll dive into some of the new ones that are joining the single barrel train, if you will. I think, Diana, what do we got? 12 for this year? It signed up for that program, I think.

There's 11 right now. There's room for a couple more if we get a couple more signed on.

Okay, listen up distilleries. If you haven't put in your single barrel launch release, reach out to Diane. She might be able to squeeze two more in, maybe?

Yeah, I think so.

Oh, awesome.

And we'll dive into some of the new ones and some of the ones that are redoing this too here in a minute. But right now, this is the James Pepper beer that actually three of us chose last year. Bo was a part of that and Jim and I. Great, great day. It was a fun day.

Yeah. And boy, you got some good shots there too.

That was a super fun pick.

Yeah, it was really good. And we all wonder what happened to that rye barrel that we were... drinking on.

Yeah, there was a barrel of the bars underneath our bar. And she's like, Hey, you guys want to try this? And she dug, she bore a hole under our table. So, so to speak.

Yeah, that was good. All right, let's check it out. Oh my goodness.

I know.

That's so good.

What are those yellow candies that your grandpa used to give you?

Like the butterscotch candies?

The Weathers.

Oh, Weathers? The Weathers original? The hard caramels?

The finish. I'm drinking on it already. I was going to say, we're still nosing. I forgot what the nose was like.

Yeah. So I've been, I was in bourbon desert yesterday. So I found bourbon. It was okay. I made it work, but, um, it's good to be back. Yeah. I got like a little cherry cola on this. Oh my goodness. It does have a call note to it. I like that. Uh, nice and rich and, uh, What a leather note to it. Yeah.

A little bit of barrel funk to it. Cheers. Cheers. Second cheers to you, Diane.

The finish on that is just, it's good. And it doesn't go away, which is nice, because if it was bad, it'd suck.

That's super duper good. You know what I mean? It packs a sweetness punch, doesn't it? It does. It's nice. Yeah. Now, it's not quite as sweet as that honey we tried the other day. No. But it's good and sweet.

And it's got a peppery bite too. I like that. It's one of those days where I think- It's good balance. We had two good barrels, but this one really stood out to pretty much all of us. I think it was unanimous.

I can see why.

Yeah, really, really good stuff. Wanted to check out when folks come into Lexington for sure. They're really starting to come to their own.

They've got that decanter series.

All right. So, but we're here to talk about Bourbon on the Banks 2026, first weekend in October.

First Saturday in October. Not necessarily the first weekend. Sometimes Friday and Saturday are split. So yeah, always the first Saturday in October. It's going to be our seventh year.

It's unbelievable. That is crazy. Right?

So yeah, we're going to kick it off on Thursday. We've got the My gosh, the pub stroll that's going to start on Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And then we've got the bourbon bell tour, which sold out the first day, which is it's nice. It only seats 30 people, but it did sell out. And I do have a waiting list if anybody would like to be put on that waiting list. Ingram is going to be the distillery and Heather Wibbles is gonna do some, she's actually gonna do some different stuff on there this year instead of a mixology, it's more about how water affects bourbon. And so they'll have different pHs and different sources of the water and it'll be kind of a chemistry thing, learning event on there. That of course Ingram with them aging their whiskey on the boat, it's very fitting I think to have that boat tour.

How many people did you say were on this tour?

There's room for 30.

30 people, okay. So it was a very select few people who got to do this.

Right. And people tend to come back for that too. So they know. And at that boat tour, I mean, it runs throughout the time during Bourbon on the Banks. You don't have to necessarily do this event, but this is the one that features actually Bourbon and the different classes and stuff. So, and it does seat more than 30 people. Normally you can go on the upper deck, but we want to make sure that it's enough. It's just enough people to seat in the enclosed area down below. Right. And then we've got the kickoff at whiskey thieves. They're coming back. They're going to have their. kickoff party. It's free to attend. They do have a charge to do the tastings and tour and stuff. Music, they've got the fire. They're going to burn a barrel again. That was some of the best photographs I've seen.

That's always one of my favorite parts of the weekend. It's just a party. Everybody's there to have a good time.

And it's out on the farm. It's so pretty.

Are they going to bring back the pretty goods?

Oh, I don't think they were there last year, right? I know they were there for two years in a row.

Yeah, they were there two years ago. They weren't there last year. It was still a great time.

We can put in a request.

I don't make that choice. Who was it last year, the Louisville? bluegrass band or something. It was, I don't recall.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't remember the name, but yeah, they were good. They were really good. It was good. No, it was a great time. And I love it when they burned the barrel. That's such a great effect. It just brings people to the fire. Doesn't it? I mean, it's so nice. I mean, that's just, that's just a place to. I don't want to leave. We were just there with some roadies last weekend. I mean, if you haven't been to Whiskey Thief, right? What a great place to do the kickoff party.

Yeah. We're really thankful to have them as a sponsor. So yeah, so definitely if you come to town, come in early so you can kick it off at the official kickoff party up there. Friday, of course, we've got our free family-friendly event. Credit Union is our sponsor for that every year, and we're bigger and better this year again. The performers and food and there's alcohol there. It's very kid friendly though. There's free stuff on the lawn and that goes from six until nine thirty. Circus will be back. The belly dancers. I've got to actually have a, what are they called? Half fish, half lady person.

My God.

There's a mermaid coming. She reached out and she's like, hey, can I get a mermaid? I'm like, sure, we'll give it a go.

We need a mermaid. Cause why not?

Are the flamethrowers gonna be back?

That's my favorite thing. That's my favorite too.

I hire them the day after. They come back.

The great thing about everything you've talked about so far is none of the things you mentioned other than the bell tour requires a ticket.

Right.

So if you want to go to Whiskey Thief, if you want to go on the pub stroll, if you want to go hang out at the family time, or go visit any of the pubs downtown or restaurants in town and hang out, all of that doesn't require a ticket. So come.

Yeah. And they usually, the downtown businesses have specials or like if you tell them you're here for Birman and the Banks, they get excited. You know, they prepare for everybody to come down and a lot of times they'll have little specials going on or little gifts for them.

And there's a couple of new places downtown, which I think folks are going to want to check out.

Benson Valley Distilling just opened up a satellite tasting room there. And they're not doing, I guess I just found out they're not doing tours out at the distillery now. They're just focusing on the tasting room while they finish up out there. But yeah, I just want to end with that. It's got a full bar. They're hoping to get a restaurant. I don't know that there will be food available yet in October, but they move at the speed of lightning. I was going to say they...

Turn that around quick.

Russ did all the work in there himself and he said he did it in 30 days. He built the bar, he built the shelves, everything.

If listeners out there are familiar, it's at the old, what was the barbecue place that was there?

Trifecta.

Trifecta Barbecue. Right there in St. Claremont, the downtown area. And then also some good friends and Bourbon Society members, David and Meredith Goins just opened up a new place called the Kentucky Hug. Great name for a bar. It's like a blues bar. And he's got blues and bourbon. He's got really big ties into the music world. I mean, he's, what do you, I guess like a band instructor type thing.

Yeah, he was a band instructor at Frankfurt High and then he moved to Georgetown College.

go in there and there's like some really cool jazz being played. It's, yeah. And they've kind of changed the decor in there. Once again, for those of that, you that have been here.

It no longer smells like smoke.

Yeah, it used to be called the brick.

I don't know what they did.

Yeah. So the brick is, yeah.

Everybody loved the brick, but yeah, it's cool. It's exciting to have them back or downtown there.

Awesome.

I think we've gotten some more shops too, but there's lots of stuff going on downtown.

Well, not to mention how many more beds are in town now. So, I mean, even that's been growing, right? The number of cafes have increased, the number of VRBO beds, stays, hotels.

Yeah. Unfortunately, the Capitol Plaza is under renovation. So, a lot of the people that normally would stay there are having to find other places to stay. They have a wait list. They're hoping to open up more rooms, but it just depends on where the renovation is at. They don't want to rent rooms and then have to tell you you can't do it and find a place when everything's sold out. But we've got a we actually have a new shuttle that's working with us this year. Happy Trails is not working with us. It's called in the executive shuttle. And so he's got a whole fleet of vehicles and he's taking reservations. He'll pick you up and schedule you. And he's very professional. He's going to the hotels and talking to him. And I'm pretty impressed. I think they're going to do a really nice job this year.

Awesome.

The fees are going to be reasonable.

So you don't have to worry about it. Just come here, park your car, and forget about it.

And the city shuttle, they will have stops too. Like after the event, they will make trips out to certain hotels. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, they take requests. The city's been great. They really do a good job. Also, Friday is the VIP reception and Bourbon auction. Larkin Bourbon is back as our title sponsor for that event. They've donated a barrel pick for the auction, which we're excited about. And we've got a whole lineup of distilleries. All of our sponsor distilleries are going to be sampling at the event. They're all going to be bringing something very special, including someone from the distillery that we'll be featuring. I've got a whole long list of that, but they're all available on the website if you don't want me to take the time to go through them. But yeah, so that's as usual, we're going to be sampling out in the patio and past apps and outside and then full on food inside. The auction is going to start at seven. It's going to be nice.

And how are ticket sales? We still got some tickets available?

Yes, there are some ticket sales. So they're way ahead of last year. So, but yeah, we're definitely some tickets left there. And we've also got the, it's a, it's called The Culinary Bourbon Geek with Peggy No Stevens. That's going to be at 2 o'clock this year. We bumped it up to 2. It's been at 1 p.m. and we worked with the chef and Peggy and the volunteers to make sure we can do the transition into the Friday night. And we just, I think people feel better about drinking at 2 p.m. than they do at 1 p.m. That's what I decided. And lo and behold, the tickets are selling pretty quick on that now. So it was a good decision. I don't know what it is.

I don't know what the psychology there is.

I get it. It makes sense to me.

Does it? I'll drink at 1 p.m.

So will my husband, but that doesn't make it right.

I mean, for whatever reason, it's good.

And it's going to be Boondocks that's going to be the distillery at that event. We're kind of excited about. Dave, I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this right, Solridge.

Okay.

is the master distiller and founder of Boondocks. So he's been around quite a while, it sounds like. He's a recipient of the Whiskey Advocate Lifetime Achievement Award. He was general manager and distillery manager at Woodford Reserve. And actually, he took part in the 2019 Bourbon on the Banks. I just looked it up and I'm not sure what exactly he did. I think he was a speaker there. So I think he's going to be good to have.

Yeah. So I was telling her, she, we were talking earlier and I'm like, that's a label I've seen, but I honestly don't know much about it. I mean, I always knew them as like a NDP they sourced and things like that. But he said he's their massive distiller. So they've obviously changed some gears. So that's, I mean, seeing them there.

Yeah. So that's Friday. Did I get everything? Saturday morning, we've got the brunch over at the delegate, the Cypress and Oak, the restaurant at the delegate there.

That's a new one.

Yeah. We had a brunch last year. It was at the Ashbrook and at Cypress and Oak. But this year, it's all focused at Cypress and Oak. Full menus online. That runs from 10 until 2. So it's, and the restaurant there is pretty phenomenal.

Yeah, it's a gorgeous place. Yeah, it is.

Venue is just incredible. So hopefully people can go load up before they come and partake before the festival on Saturday.

So we're up against the break now. So why don't we just continue to sip on this old pepper and get a drink of water. And when we come back in the second half, we're going to talk about the big day and any lesson learned from last year. Sound good, guys? Sounds great.

Hey there, bourbon roadies. It's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival, and I want to give you a quick update on Bourbon on the Banks. General admission is officially sold out. But don't worry, we've still got Twilight tickets, and they're absolutely worth it. You'll catch the final two hours of the festival. The energy is high, the crowd is buzzing, the music's going, and the bourbon is flowing. With over 70 distilleries to sample from, you don't want to miss it. It's all happening October 3rd in Frankfurt. Grab those Twilight tickets before they're gone. I can't wait to see you on the banks.

All right, Roadies, we finally, finally released our brand new website. We hope you get a chance to check it out at TheBurbanRoad.com. It is a total rewrite, remake, revamped. We've done it for you. We have all 500 or so episodes on there with all the details, searchable, all the show notes, everything. You can search by it. You want to go find out what we talked about on an episode way back when you can do it. We've also got our tasting notes, our reviews of over 1,320 whiskies. They're all on there. Todd and I, our tasting notes, our rating for the whiskey. We even cue up the episode on the tasting notes to where we tasted it on the show. So as you're reading our tasting notes, you can play it and listen to us talk about it. So I think we're the only podcast that does that. That's pretty cool. So another thing we have on there is our blog articles. We've got over 250 blog articles on there. We're putting new ones out all the time. And the all new Roadie Bar is now on the Bourbon Road website. So if you're a Roadie, come on, sign up, get in there. We have a chat room. We've got a place where you can post what's going on in your Bourbon world. We have a calendar of all the events that are coming up. We'll be posting in there our uh drawings so as we're giving things away you'll be able to come in there and and sign up for the randomizer to get picked you'll also be able to sign up on list to come out come to something that we're we're sponsoring uh Todd's got a great event that we're putting on in the fall and everybody can come in and sign up for that and we've also got coupons from our vendors for so percentages off on stuff so Definitely take the time to come to the website. Check it out. We do want you to come in and sign up and join in. It's a lot of fun. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. You're certainly welcome to donate if you want to, but it's free for all roadies. So come check it out.

All right, listeners, welcome back to the second half of the show. We're here with Diane Strong and Bo Kermlin, and we're talking about the 2026 Bourbon on the Banks Festival. And we enjoyed an excellent pour from one of the single barrels last year, the Old Pepper Distillery, their single barrel bourbon, 109.4 proof. I don't think this was only $60, $65 that day. That's what's cool. All these picks will be available. They'll have, I'm assuming, the banners designates that they have single.

He'll be on the map as well.

So if you trust some of the pallets you're listening to right now, you should check them out while you're there.

I'm glad you mentioned the price because now Cooper will be able to hear that and put it on the tasting notes. So thank you very much.

So we're going to dive into our second bourbon on the banks pick from last year. And this one's from down your way, Jim. Yeah. It's the Jephtha Creed Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey single barrel reserve. This is 119.52. They went an extra decimal on that proof. Warehouse B, which I don't know which one that would be. Seven years in one month.

This is a- Yeah, they're getting up there.

They're getting up there. Four grain. So I'm pretty sure that'll have their bloody butcher corn, wheat, mounted barley, and rye.

That's correct. Yeah. The barrel houses are kind of small, but barrel house B would probably be their second one, the second one built. So yeah, some of the early stuff. Okay. Now, you probably know more about this.

Are all their rick houses behind that area?

As far as I know, they're all back behind the distillery, but they may have others that I don't know. Someone else. Yeah. It's almost walking distance from the house. Well, a little bit further than I want to walk. You could bike there. I could bike there. That's right.

All right. This is one of these, um, places caught a lot of little bit of a flack at first. Uh, but I think they're starting to find their own.

Yeah. Yeah. In fact, you know, it's kind of funny because We had a family member in town, I think about a couple of weeks ago, and she had a son-in-law who collected bourbon. So she went down and took a picture of the bourbon wall in the Bourbon Road bar and asked him if anything looked good to him. He said, I want that red, white, and blue from Jep the Green. That's cool. That's what he wanted. So he was so giddy excited about it too.

Sadly, they're not on the single barrel pick list this time. Is that right?

Not yet.

Not yet. All right. Jeff Cready, if you're listening, might want to get in on that. I just want to say. Oh, yeah, they are.

They are.

All right. I want to say, I think they were very unfairly given that because they were one of the first people I interviewed for one of the first films I ever did getting into the bourbon industry. And they were new. And the only product they had out at the time was a year and a half product and I bought it, you know, cause I actually went back a couple of weeks ago and had some of that.

And I mean, it's young, but it's not released that like the first release was a pretty good size release and it had a little bit of Jasmine contamination. So, uh, you were able to pick that up if you, if you're familiar with that. So, and I think that's what got them, but it wasn't horrible. Uh, no, it was just that anytime you get that, that What river dirty sock kind of thing. It's a little off putting to some people. Other people don't mind. Yeah. You know, if you're a big fan of mushrooms, thanks sellers. Yeah.

But yeah, I love their stuff now.

I've got two or three different bottles on my bar and I visit them quite often. Because they're so unique. Yeah, they are. Their nose and their palate is like nothing else out there. Right. Personally, I don't know about you, Todd, but I prefer Jimmy Redd over Bloody Butcher.

Yeah, I'd say so. But Red Corn's just different.

Yeah, it is. That is a nice sweet cinnamon. A little bit of root beer maybe.

Oh yeah. Cinnamon buttered pancake or not, Bud Light.

Bud Light? You said Bud Light? No. Bud Light?

No. Cinnamon covered Hope cakes or something.

So you got through, but I was just about to say, um, what is it?

What is the, I was just about to say that when you said root beer. Yeah. I got a little strawberry.

That's one of the original ingredients and root beer. Right?

Yeah. Great.

Now we'll see. Were you on this one? I was not. Yeah.

Talk about full, powerful flavor.

It's so different than the nose to me. But then when I nose it after I tried it, the nose was a lot more complex.

Now you get that buttered cinnamon pancake that you were talking about.

Rich caramel punch.

Really good. Yeah, any of their whiskeys over five or six years are just becoming beautiful. They're becoming delicious. And that's, I think, that's their sweet spot. And who knows what's going to happen if they continue to let some of those age. Wow.

Yeah. So let's talk about a few of the Single Barrel participants this year that you've got, right?

Well, so far, Pursuit Spirits coming back.

I want to go back to that one. Yeah. You went to that one.

Yeah, that's good.

It was a fun day.

Every single one of them was excellent.

We could have taken any of those and been fine, but ours was stellar. And I will say this, I went there not too long afterwards. I checked out their new place and what was cool was any leftovers they have where they will feature, like they literally have like bottles of a lot of the picks that get, you know, sometimes they'll just have bottles left over because when they ship out, it's only cases of six, so anything leftover. And then I think they took a few home that day from the festival, but I went to see if they had it. That day I was having a pour and it was sold out. Well, that's good. I know.

Yeah. Yeah, I think the only problem we had was deciding what the audience would like. Do they want something that's just really, really good or something that was different? That's what I remember. It's trying to decide, you know, so. Leeper's Fork, Whiskey Thief, Heart Filled in Cove, Short Barrel is coming back, Short Barrel of Bourbon. Angel's Envy, Dark Arts, McBrayer Legacy. We think they are. He's a NDP and he's working on getting his distillery license. He doesn't know if he'll get it in time. If he doesn't, it's fine. We can still run through Capital Wine Seller like we do the other out-of-state ones. But it just makes it trickier. I think he's going to do it regardless. Jackson Purchase Distillery.

I'm very excited about that one.

Yeah. Boondocks is going to do it. And Jeff the Creed.

Awesome. Oh, cool. Fantastic.

So before we jump into more 2026, is there anything you kind of threw at the wall for 2025 that, you know, worked really well? And was there anything that you tried in 2025 that you're like, no, we're ditching that?

You know, I mean, I'm talking like,

little things even. Bathroom situations.

We've nailed it.

We'll never be able to appease the people that don't like the smell of porta potties. But also, of course, our sewer tower that's inside the wall, it's still there. We did work with the city to make sure that they Instead of like a stagnant sewer smell, it smelled a little bit more like a porta potty. And so people did get that, but yeah, it was much better. So as far as that.

Who doesn't like the smell of porta potties?

I know, right? It's refreshing. I rub those pox on me when I- I was gonna say you could do like, what is it, the nose gaze or something, what they call it, the little nose thing.

It's like rose and I don't know.

But yeah, you know, I remember you asking me last year, so what's new this year? And we didn't have any big changes. I felt like we were really just trying to hold strong and do what we did, but do it better. Reading the reviews, once again, the feedback was excellent. It was at all really good. By far, the biggest complaint is not enough shade. We've heard that before, but we were just kind of like, I don't know what we can do. We only have so many trees, but we do, we invest, not of seating is another thing, and we always invest in more seating. But this year we are going to have 15 umbrellas for our 15 new picnic tables that we've added in the past. So that is something that we're doing. I think that'll be nice, and we will be bringing in more seating. We cannot buy more picnic tables for that park and leave them there because then it'll just be nothing but picnic tables. But we're going to request that the city or the parks bring in from outside parks just for our event, and we'll put them everywhere we can find them. But those were the two big, big things there. Ticketing, we're making some tweaks. I think it goes well, but we've actually figured out a way to make it go even smoother and not get jumbled in there. Of course. Everybody always says, are we going to make it two days? And when I read the survey, I would say maybe 15%, 20% say make it two days. So it's really not the vast majority. Making it two days is a lot more complicated than one might seem. I mean, we would have to make it Friday, Saturday, because people don't stick around on Sundays, typically. More than anything, we heard if we could just make it a little bit longer. And that is something we were doing this year, which we're excited about. It's not for everybody, but we're going to open the doors at noon for the special access, which that's just 300 people. But it's going to be a dry run to see, can we can we make it last six hours and everybody's still alive? The volunteers are still good to go. You know, we can actually get opened up in time, you know, because it's a tricky park to set up and But it's good. And obviously, people are excited because those tickets sold in 35 minutes. And one of the reasons we feel confident about doing that is a change that we're making that's not probably exciting to attendees, but it will affect the attendees in the future if we do want to make it a longer event. And that is expanding the pathway at the ward out end of the park. So as you know, it's a linear park in the past. If you have a vehicle, there's one way in and one way out. So that makes for very complicated dance, if you will, where a vehicle comes in, they pull off, they're unloading, they let another vehicle in. If somebody needs to get out, you got to stop traffic, you know, get out of the way. It's just it's kind of a big pain. And At the end of the night, when we're breaking down section one, which everybody loves being in section one, because that's where everybody drops into, the distilleries love being there, and they swear they're not going to complain about having to wait to leave, but they always do, because they're the last to leave. And so this year, it was actually my husband that came up with this idea of widening the pathway on the Ward 8, Ward Oats End, so vehicles can actually drive out. So now we're going to have one way traffic for them. You come in, you pull off, and it doesn't matter if you're in section one or section three, you just you're going to head on out. And we think it's going to make it a lot more efficient. And if that's the case, maybe next year we can even extend it an hour on the back end for everybody.

They just take a boat down to the dock, load up that way. There are other options for them.

Yeah. Well, I mean, they can walk out.

Got to think outside the box. All right.

Yeah. So that's an exciting change that we're making that, like I said, I don't think attendees will notice it, but the distilleries will, and it's going to make our lives easier. So that's fun.

The timeline will be mobile this year.

Yeah. You guys are going to be walking around.

Yeah. We gave up our space to the... To the Bourbon Women Tent.

We're excited. It's going to be a tent. It's going to be free for everybody. It's not a separate ticket. And there'll be three different programs that are going to run. So when you get your map, there'll also be a little program that we'll hand out so you'll know what time it is. It's open to women and men. Susan Riegler is going to be teaching one of them. Peggy, no Stevens, will be teaching one. And then Jen Bryan will be teaching one. Interactive, Mary Dowling is the sponsor of that tent, which obviously is very fitting. So all the product in there will be from Mary Dowling for that. I think it'll seat about 60 people, so first come first serve. And if you want to stand up and watch from the edge, you can. So yeah, that'll be going on during the event.

Mary Dowling would be so proud.

Yeah, I think she would be too.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think we'll probably miss having our own booth a little bit, but I think we're also going to enjoy just kind of walking around and talking to people.

So for the time that we've been going there and hosting the roadie bar and having our listeners come and visit the tent and everything, it's been great. We've had a great time doing it. But we've also missed the opportunity to get out and meet people around the event. So I think it'll be fun. I think it'll be great this year.

We'll be able to sign more bottles and kiss more babies. Kiss more babies. No babies. No babies. That's right.

Never mind. We'll let our drone fight. Kiss Bo.

Our drone will fight Bo's drone.

We're going to have a drone fight. You must be 21 to enter.

No babies.

No babies.

So Bo, what have you been working on for, what's Dan had you doing lately?

So this year we did a little bit something different. You know, the past, what, three years, two or three years, we did the Undressing Bourbon, I mean, the Undressing Bourbon series. And so the idea there each year was to just kind of, well, the first year was to talk about the myths of bourbon and that kind of thing, kind of undressed bourbon. And then we evolved that into talking more about the people in the distilleries, how they got where they were going, how they got into bourbon kind of thing. And this year we kind of decided to step away from the undressing bourbon sector, all of those are still online on the website. You can go back and watch all of those. But this time we wanted to kind of focus on some of the, well, all of the title sponsors. And really, you know, it's one of those things that when you go to a festival like this, you get to go to tent by tent and hear a little bit about what's going on with the distilleries. But if you don't know these distilleries, That might be all that you get, unless you go to the distilleries and do their tours or whatnot. We decided to take on that. When these title sponsors, we're doing videos that just really talk about their mission. and their processes. For instance, we just finished one that's out today.

Yup, I just put it on the website today.

It's about the Ingram distillery and just how they do things differently. It's enough, I think, that it'll get people interested and say, oh man, I didn't know that this existed. I didn't know they did that. The whole idea is to get people involved in going to and supporting these distilleries. It was really good.

I mean, I learned about it. I was looking forward to that one. And then you've also got the larkin video.

Yeah, we did the larkin first. She keeps saying larkin.

Is it larkin or larkin?

Larkin. That's all right.

Maybe it's my Australian accent.

I think that's the problem. You're fighting that Aussie accent. Via Minnesota, right?

Yeah.

But yeah, so the title sponsors are getting them. And of course, this year we're going to continue with the doing the barrel pick videos. Those are absolutely my favorite thing on this planet to do.

I was going to say, was there any feedback about Amzie always being at the end rubbing his beard?

That's my favorite part.

I get more comments on that. I was going to say, she gets comments about that and just ignores. It's her favorite part. Yeah, that's the best.

Yeah, it's important that he does that. He's not allowed to cut his beard.

He also needs to get us our single barrel pick schedule.

We have one on the schedule right now.

The board's getting after him too, because they want to attend one.

He's a busy man.

Yes.

He's okay. Everything about him is okay.

He's at the Indy 500 right now.

Yeah. Enjoy. Enjoy. When you come back, we got questions for you.

That's right. All right, so let's dive into the big day, Saturday.

Yeah.

Are we ready?

Yeah.

What's going on?

Well, the special access people get in at noon, obviously. They're gonna get the tasting glass lanyard. We had some requests for that, I know.

Ooh, that's cool.

Yeah, so they all get one with their ticket, and then we'll have some for sale at the merch tent as well, which will be good. I know that people had asked about it. That's gonna be a big hit.

It's gonna be a really big hit, because you're gonna have all these early access people using them, and everybody else is gonna see them and go, I want one of those.

Yeah, we worked something out with Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace is sponsoring the after party band, but they're part of this lanyard thing too. So it'll be branded Buffalo Trace and Bourbon on the Banks.

Well, that'll be the hit. Yep.

Yeah, I think so.

That's cool.

Yeah. And then obviously, early entry gets in at 1 p.m. That was sold out in four and a half hours. So those are gone. General admission gets in at two. Those were gone in three weeks. And we have some twilight tickets available, which are from four to six, two hours, which is

Plenty of time.

You can get a lot done in two hours and then you've got the free after party. So it's not like you're coming for just two hours, you know?

Right. Yeah. I would say, I would say grab your, your Twilight tickets since none of the others are available now and you really want to come because most of the weekend is ticket free.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.

So just get your time taken. It's definitely worth your trip. Come do it. Yeah. Come do it. Yeah.

We've got so many distilleries you can go and tour and, and you know, you can get a lot done, see a lot of things.

Do you have some numbers this time? Like how many distilleries, breweries, any of that stuff?

Um, the total of breweries, distilleries, everybody is, I believe we're at 81 right now. Okay. Um, but that includes the breweries and wineries. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And food trucks?

Yeah. We've got some new ones coming. I wish I could remember exactly what they are. There's poke bowls coming back. And there was another one that was, it's like a ramen something. There's a couple of different ones that I tried to play around with.

Bo likes ramen.

Supposedly the, you know, the. Bo knows ramen. Lobster guy's coming. Yeah, there should be a very good variety. Do you think people want donuts, like the mini donuts?

It's not too much.

We had a sweet something that everybody loved last year. It was like cookies or something. Everybody loved it, but she can't come back this year, so I need another sweet.

Well, I mean, if everybody loved them last year, maybe that's something I just don't understand myself, but I wouldn't only eat sweets and- Yeah, bourbon and donuts.

Yeah, bourbon and donuts wouldn't go, but- I at least wait till, like we said, one o'clock to- Well, the after party is going to have the funnel cake, so if you want, and yeah, and shaved ice. So we're going to have a good food lineup at the after party too. miss out.

Donuts.

That was an Eric thing. That's been his request. I shouldn't listen to him.

He works so hard. He's very good at coordinating logistics. Be nice to Eric.

Because no one else would want that job. I know.

I know. He's awesome.

So speaking of the after party, who's the headliner this time?

Well, we've got, I believe, well, I know that Creekwater is coming back, but we're gonna open up with a band called Hancock and Schaus. They're actually bluegrass.

I've heard of them, I think.

It's gonna be either a five or six piece bluegrass band. We thought it might be interesting to have them open because most of our attendees are out of state and I thought they might appreciate the bluegrass being first because it's Kentucky. And then Creekwater will take over at seven for your traditional rock, you know, covers and just kind of take the party into nine o'clock.

Jerry was giving the thumbs up on the Bluegrass band.

Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, they're good. They're good.

Yeah.

So and they seem easy to work with. I like that. I know I know Steve, our music coordinator, likes that. So.

So this is also going to be at the far end of the Riverview Park there near the... Is it actually at the entrance where we do our ticketing at the new Urban on the Banks Festival Pavilion?

That's right. That's yours now.

Yeah. That used to be the old...

Try to get your name put on it or anything?

We have permission to do it. It's in the MOU.

The Diane Strong downstream?

Diane Strong Pavilion.

Who the hell is that?

We'll do a video on it.

Yeah.

We have to stop calling it the old Farmer's Market Pavilion. And the city has actually had a little roundtable about let's start calling it Burwood on the Banks Festival Pavilion.

That's cool.

That is so awesome. And the Farmer's Market is now elsewhere. Yes. And better off for it.

Oh yeah. Well, it was an interesting situation that the city, that parking lot used to be owned by the state and the farmers market and the city, well, the city leased it and the farmers market had purchased that pavilion via a grant and fundraising to put on there. And then the city eventually acquired the property from the state. I think it was 2023. And then they decided that they wanted to develop it. And in anticipation of that, they started building the new farmers market. And it's great. They spent like a million dollars on it. Large parking lot. It's a nice location. I know that people weren't necessarily all happy about it having to move. But, you know, it is what it is. And since then, the plan for that parking lot has kind of changed. They're thinking it's going to be part of the riverfront development, which is, you know, they've got the plans and the funding's not there yet and the plan's not final. The farmers market really needed, they wanted to get some money out of that farmers, the pavilion, and the city really wanted them to hurry and do that because they have plans to do events, especially the 250 event, right? Anyway, long story short, Bourbon on the Banks really wants the pavilion to stay. I think it's a huge asset for any event venue. And so we offered them some money and they were happy and the city was happy to take ownership when we donated it back to them. And we just did it in one little transaction. We owned it for about 30 seconds.

Yeah.

It's not ours anymore, but it'll be there for the after party. It'll be there for the 250th anniversary party that's going to take place on the third.

Yeah. Have we forgot anything? I think we've covered it all, haven't we? Sunday, recovery day.

Yeah.

Drive home.

Yeah, everybody's heading out Sunday.

I look forward to this every year. Such a blast. Good time.

Now, with this possible riverfront Expansion. I mean, have you thought how that might change?

Well, from what I understand, believe it or not, we were not invited to be one of the like, you know, they invite a lot of different players, but we weren't invited. But the city is actually kind of acting on our behalf. They they know that bourbon on the banks is going to be there. And they're putting that in in mind as this discussion is going from what I'm told. So it's it's brought up and

So that's for moving further up river, right?

That riverfront development is supposed to start at Buffalo Trace and go all the way... To the old bridge? To Blattons Landing, which is over the Capitol Avenue bridge. And I think there may be some discussions of going out even farther. It just depends. Either a trail system or...

But we do a lot of stuff in planning stages. We do.

This is not the first Riverfront planning we've done.

So we'll see.

But supposedly this one incorporates all the old ones and they're very serious.

All right. Well, let's let all our listeners know where they can get all the details from Brevin on the Banks.

bourbononthebanks.org or Google Bourbon on the Banks and you'll find us too. Or you'll find us on Facebook.

That's where you get the information on the events. Even if you're not a ticketed visitor, there's plenty to do. And just go to the bourbononthebanks.org website and

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. We keep you up to date there. You can subscribe to the website. We don't send out a lot of emails, but the ones I send out are important, so make sure that we're not going to your spam.

Good deal. Awesome.

And I should say thank you to Visit Frankfurt. They are our title sponsor this year.

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much. I feel like Bo didn't say much. Bo did good. Bo did good. He popped in with some valuable tidbits when the time came. Appreciate it, Bo. He's got another podcast to do.

He's saving his voice. He's saving all the good stuff. All right.

Well, we certainly look forward to it.

We hope all the Roars are golf clap kind of guy.

We'll come out this year to Bourbon on the Banks and join Todd and I as we walk up and down the park and visit all the tents. and do all the things. So definitely put it on your calendar, October 3rd.

October 3rd.

October 3rd or the weekend, the extended weekend of October the 3rd.

That's right. That's right. Come early.

All right. Well, thank you, Diane. We appreciate your... Thanks for having me.

I hope I remembered everything.

You did good. You did good. All right, folks. Well, uh, we hope you will take the time to visit the new bourbon road website, bourbon, the bourbon road.com. We just put it up. It's a, it's our new place to hang out. We've got a roadie bar on there place for everybody to come in and, uh, and join in on the fun. We've got, uh, uh, you know, a full post section where everybody posts what they're doing today, what they're drinking, what they're liking, uh, they're talking back and forth to each other. We've got a live chat session in there as well with our bartender Cooper. He's there 24-7, so just come in and hang out with him. We also have our event calendar on there where a lot of things are going on. Barman on the Banks is on the event calendar. We also have our roadie bar gathering that we're having that weekend. If you want to attend the roadie bar gathering, make sure you get on the event calendar and join up on that. And we also just posted... a brand new randomizer. Yeah, a giveaway. A giveaway. One of our roadies, Doug Keller, has painted Rick House A of Wild Turkey and he's got one of his prints that he's given away.

He's a great guy. He is a great guy. He's donated to the VIP auction and the sculpture park.

So that painting that he donated to the VIP auction, this is a print of that painting that he's giving away on the Bourbon Road. Come in, join up, put your name on the list. The randomizer will run on Friday the 29th. So get your name on the list. Maybe you'll win it. Um, we still do all the social medias. We're still on the bourbon roadies Facebook page. We hope you patronize all those places, but come visit us on the bourbon road.com. That's kind of our new home and certainly everything we'd like to do new will be done there. And the website's just a lot of fun. So we hope to see you there. But in the meantime, we will see you down the Bourbon Road.

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