Kentucky Derby

Travel Tidbits heading into the weekend

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Louisville Airport welcomes Kentucky Derby fans

The Kentucky Derby will take place on schedule this year on Saturday, May 1 and Louisville Muhammad International Airport (SDF) is decked out and ready to welcome Derby guests with lots of fresh roses.

PHX has COVID-19 shots

Airports everywhere are continuing their “keep clean things clean” campaigns. Touchless tech helps, and we see Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) just added touchess/wave-to-call elevator buttons.

Places We’d Go… Cleveland

Cleveland is hosting the NFL Draft, with lots of bonus activities.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has a new exhibit celebrating the Super Bowl Halftime Show music and performers.

The Biggest Show on Turf: 55 Years of Halftime Shows will be on exhibit through September 21 and includes performance outfits, instruments, and set pieces, including Prince’s turquoise suit worn during his unforgettable purple-rained 2007 performance, where he asked production managers “Can you make it rain harder?” and Katy Perry’s beach-ball inspired costume and “Left Shark” that ignited a pop culture phenomenon after her 2015 performance.


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What’s up at Kentucky’s Louisville Int’l Airport?

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To celebrate Minth Julep Month – and the Kentucky Derby, where the Mint Julep is the official cocktail – the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport has created a living wall with more than 700 fresh mint plants.

Here’s a video of the installation.

This week the airport also hosted a party, with this great cake. The occasion: a celebration of the inaugural American Airlines flight from SDF to Los Angeles International Airport.

Here’s are some of the other reasons we’re celebrating SDF airport this week:

They have a mascot named Skye. They just opened a new room for nursing mothers. And the post-security Distillery District Marketplace enables travelers to buy Kentucky-distilled spirits to take home.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at O’Hare; Kentucky Derby at CVG and Louisville

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https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-3418-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Courtesy New York Public Library, via Flickr Commons

Travelers passing through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport get to celebrate Cinco de Mayo a day early.

Today, Thursday, starting at 3:30 between the H and K concourses near Tortas Frontera, there will be a live mariachi band, a flair bartender giving margarita demos and tastings, giveaways and a musical dance performance. All courtesy HMSHost.

And from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), the folks from Seven Oaks Farm will be bringing by their miniature-therapy horses decked out in Derby attire, because this weekend is the 143rd Kentucky Derby.  Can’t wait to see what they’ll be wearing!

 

 

And to celebrate the Kentucky Derby, on Thursday and Friday at Louisville International Airport arriving passengers will be welcomed by live music and greeters offering complimentary Woodford Reserve Bourbon Balls in the terminal’s airside rotunda.

A bugler’s “Call to the Post,” which usually signals the arrival of horses on the racetrack for their race, announces the arrival of bags at baggage claim carousel.

And, for those who may be leaving Louisville with souvenir bottles of bourbon and Derby glasses in their checked luggage, the airport ambassadors will have complimentary bubble-wrap packing stations set up near  the airline ticket counters on Sunday, May 7, beginning at 4 a.m.

 

Souvenir Sunday at Louisville International Airport

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If you’re a horse racing fan you know by now that I’ll Have Another, at 15-1 odds, won the 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Whether you bet right or not, if you’re heading home through Louisville International Airport you can pick up some fun Derby-related souvenirs.

Airport officials tell me that, at the Churchill Downs specialty shop, a favorite souvenir is an authentic horseshoe from Churchill Downs, especially those that still have some dirt from the racetrack.

Other souvenirs include official mint julep glasses, Derby-themed aprons decorated with brightly colored jockey silks and treats made from Kentucky’s signature bourbons, including Woodford Reserve bourbon balls, Mint Julep taffy and bourbon bark.

For those heading out from the airport on Sunday, May 6, Robert Joyner, artist of this year’s Kentucky Derby print, will be at the Churchill Downs shop from 10 to 11 a.m. to sign prints. And, for kids of any age, there will be a chance to meet Churchill Charlie (the mascot of Churchill Downs) between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Louisville International Airport ready for Kentucky Derby

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The Kentucky Derby is coming up on Saturday, May 5th and this whole week is the busiest time of the year for Louisville International Airport, SDF.

To make all those horse racing fans feel welcome, the airport decorates the terminal with approximately 2,000 roses and hires musicians to play in the rotunda.

Better yet: volunteers greet arriving passengers with Woodford Reserve bourbon balls.

From the photos airport officials sent me, it looks like everyone – even the airline staff – gets into the race-day spirit.

Be sure to swing back here on Sunday when our Souvenir Sunday feature will share some of the Derby-related souvenirs race fans can pick up at Louisville International Airport.

All photos courtesy of the airport.