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Bluegrass, bourbon, sports to grow in '23

keith lawrence, messenger-inquirer, owensboro, ky.
·3 min read

Jul. 23—More bluegrass, more bourbon, more events, more sports.

Those are among the things the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau is working on for next year.

When the Home2 Suites by Hilton opens across Second Street from the Owensboro Convention Center in late spring 2024 with its 121 rooms, there will be 1,499 rooms in town.

That's the most since the 1,565 rooms when the old Executive Inn was near its peak two decades ago.

And the CVB's job is to fill them.

So Mark Calitri, CVB president and CEO, and his staff are coming up with new events to bring more people to town.

"Our biggest opportunity is state association conventions," he said this week. "Those are our bread and butter."

Calitri is also hoping to create more events like OMG!con, the anime, cosplay and gaming convention that typically brings around 4,000 people to town each year.

He's talking about things like a Lego convention, a G.I. Joe toy expo and an arcade convention.

Calitri said he is working with the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum for new events.

There's the Great American Bluegrass Jam in January, "a time when we need increased occupancy" Cars & Guitars, a twice-yearly event with the Hall of Fame and Green River Distilling; and something Calitri is tentatively calling "O Brother Fest."

Calitri says he's also working to create a master plan "to introduce ROMP and the Kentucky Fiddle Championship to a new audience."

He's talking about adding a component to the International Bar-B-Que Festival to increase room nights.

Allen Payne, festival chairman, said in April, "Next year, we want to bring in some nationally-known entertainment and barbecue teams. We want to attract a national audience by bringing in big names. We want to draw more people from outside the area."

Tim Ross, the city's public events director, said this week that it will be several months before more information is released.

Bourbon tourism growingCalitri said Green River Distilling had around 3,000 visitors last year on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

This year, he said, it expects 11,000.

That should grow to 20,000 next year, Calitri said, and to 32,500 in 2024.

He said the CVB wants to help promote celebrities whose whiskey is made at Green River.

The list, so far, includes football legends Terry Bradshaw and Charles Woodson, actor John Wayne and country singer Alan Jackson.

"Visitors will demand more options, more to do," Calitri said. "We must create more packages, more unique offerings."

The CVB is also hoping to get the Hemmings Motor News Great Race, which brought 115 vintage vehicles into downtown on a 2,300-mile road rally from San Antonio to Greenville, South Carolina, last year, to return in 2023 or 2024.

Calitri said there are plans to expand Owensboro's "12 Days of Christmas" celebration this year.

And he's expecting to hear next month if Owensboro will win GeoWoodstock XX, the world's largest geocaching festival, which will be somewhere on Memorial Day in 2023.

Calitri said the event could bring 5,000 to 7,000 geocaching enthusiasts to town from all 50 states and more than 30 countries.

Chris Gendek, destination development and sports management director for the CVB, said Owensboro is "looking to partner with Evansville for really big tournaments with 80 to 150 teams."

He said, "Between us, we have 12 turf fields. It would be a win-win for both of us" if large tournaments were played in both cities at the same time.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com