Danville’s Great American Brass Band Festival has made Southeast Tourism Society’s top 20 list of festivals for the third time. 

The Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the festival organizers nominated the festival to be on the list.

CVB Director Jennifer Kirchner said to nominate the festival, “it requires assembling a package that conveys how successful and unique the festival is.”

“The staff at GABBF did a wonderful job of helping us assemble an application inclusive of accolades, pictures, newspaper stories and festival happenings to submit to STS,” Kirchner said.

“We are always pleased and proud when we are nationally recognized for being a well loved and unique festival,” said Niki Kinkade, the executive director of the festival. “We like to support the arts in our region and are happy to do our part to elevate music and the arts.”

This is a significant ranking because the list covers the entire Southeast of the U.S., she said.

“The competition is tough,” Kirchner said. “From a CVB perspective, it is a windfall of marketing dollars … This adds credibility and recognition to the festival that purchased ads cannot accomplish. When possible, the CVB prefers earned media to paid advertisements.”

Making the list means the festival will reach more than 1,600 media outlets, according to a news release. 

“It will get the message to a large and varied audience that would otherwise be hard to reach,” Kirchner said.

“Exposure like this does pique people’s interest in events that are new to them and thought of highly by others,” Kinkade said. “I do think this type of recognition could bring more people to the festival.”

According to a news release, the festival was founded in 1990 and is one that “is a hallmark of our community and center to its traditions. It is an event that brings together families and friends, energetic volunteers and music lovers from all over the world to the Bluegrass region.”

According to a release, the “Southeast Tourism Society chooses the Top 20 events in the Southeast for each month of the year and publishes this list of winners quarterly.”

The same nomination process has also been done for the Perryville Battle Commemoration and The Kentucky State BBQ Festival, Kirchner said.

“The CVB has partnered with the Southeast Tourism Society for many years,” she said. “They are a valuable and respected resource. We also believe GABBF is very worthy of this recognition and we are happy to be a part of their success.”