Getting the flavor of...Kentucky’s Derby countdown

Kentucky’s Derby countdown

The Kentucky Derby may last only two minutes, but the party beforehand lasts two weeks, said James T. Black in Southern Living. On April 21, the opening day of Louisville’s Kentucky Derby Festival, you can pick up “local goodies” from vendors along the city’s riverfront and watch an afternoon air show. On the night of the 27th, see “some of the most beautiful hot-air balloons in the country” glowing in the dark after their burners are lit to warm up for the following morning’s race. You also won’t want to miss the famous steamboat race on May 2, when you can ride on a competing steamboat for a fee or root for your favorite from the riverbank for free. The festival concludes with a May 3 evening parade featuring “marching bands, equestrian units, floats, and giant character balloons.” When the last brass section passes by, you’ll still have more than a full day to rest up for the biggest horse race of the year.

Acting out The Hunger Games

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

North Carolina is taking full advantage of the attention that’s been directed its way by The Hunger Games, said Laura Kiniry in the San Jose Mercury News. Fans of the new blockbuster film can wander DuPont State Recreational Forest on their own, but an outfit called Hunger Games Fan Tours has begun dressing a local teenager as the movie’s heroine and leading visitors to key shooting locations. Devotees will recognize sections of these Blue Ridge Mountain woods, especially Bridal Veil Falls, where the film’s Katniss Everdeen tended to one of her injuries. I also followed an itinerary created by the state’s tourism department (visitnc.com) to visit some of the places where the cast and crew hung out during filming. This led me 40 miles north to Asheville, where Woody Harrelson favored the vegetarian restaurant Laughing Seed. If he’d stayed in character, as the film’s heavy-drinking Haymitch Abernathy, he might have enjoyed the authentic mountain moonshine at Troy & Sons Distillers.