By KERRY STEINHOFER

kerry.steinhofer@amnews.com

The BBQ Festival brings in thousands of people from Kentucky and beyond, but the festival wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the help of local sponsors. 

“The BBQ festival in general needs sponsorships to pull it off,” Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Jennifer Kirchner said. “It’s an expensive festival to put on. It takes a village to pull something like this off.”

Kirchner explained how there are all sorts of logistical and behind the scene spending that goes on, and that’s where the help from sponsors comes in.

“The sponsorships help pay for all of that, and then in turn, what that does is it leaves more festival proceeds to be donated to United Way, which 10 percent goes to help fund United Way,” Kirchner said.

CVB is a sponsor that donates $2,500 to the BBQ festival. 

“Businesses can donate smaller with a few hundred dollars or we have Four Roses, for the first time this year, as a whole hog sponsor,” Kirchner said. “Sponsors can donate anywhere from $100 to $10,000. Everybody likes to be a part of it.”

Kirchner said one of the things she’s been really impressed with this year is how creative the downtown merchants and others in Danville have been with displaying signs and getting into the spirit of the festival. 

“We want all of downtown to be involved,” Kirchner said.

For Kirchner, the festival has exceeded all of her expectations. ” We’ve got a lot of people doing the scavenger hunt, the lines for the food, while they’re long, it’s worth the wait and the weather is beautiful,” Kirchner said. “It’s the busiest I’ve ever seen the festival and it’s the busiest I’ve ever seen downtown. I’m just tickled.”