Kentucky Derby Festival

The Kentucky Derby Festival is an annual festival held in Louisville, Kentucky during the two weeks preceding the first Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby. The festival, Kentucky's largest single annual event, first ran from 1935–1937, and restarted in 1956 and includes:

• Thunder Over Louisville, the largest annual fireworks display in North America;
• the Great Balloon Race;
• The Great Steamboat Race, featuring the Belle of Louisville;
• the Pegasus Parade, one of the largest parades in the United States; and
• the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon & miniMarathon.
• the Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic