page_title: Kentucky Derby Festival
section_title: Races
hierarchical_section_title: Kentucky Derby Festival / Official events / Sports / Races
caption_attribution_description: The Great Balloon Race at the Kentucky Derby Festival.
context_page_description: 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 to 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
context_section_description: A number of races take place in the festival. The Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon and Marathon occur the Saturday before the Kentucky Derby; USA Track and Field named the miniMarathon among the nation's top 50 races. The mini has been held since 1974. That same Saturday is typically also when the Great Balloon Race is held, the culmination of the hot air balloon-themed BalloonFest.
  Recognition is given to Louisville's restaurant employees with the Run for the Rosé, where waiters and waitresses run an obstacle course while carrying trays of glasses filled with White Zinfandel Wine.  Servers finishing with the best time and most wine remaining in the glasses win prizes.
  For the annual bed races, businesses create themed mobile beds that are paraded before being race on an indoor track with costumed employees. The Great Steamboat Race usually takes place in the week before Derby, where the Belle of Louisville typically takes on at least one challenger.
caption: The Great Balloon Race
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "Samsung Techwin", "Image Model": "U-CA 501", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "M5011S-1033", "Image DateTime": "2004:01:02 14:53:49", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2324", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4904", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3348", "EXIF ExposureTime": "40/2017", "EXIF FNumber": "7", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:01:02 14:53:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:01:02 14:53:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "16/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "82/11", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "4780", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}