| Kentucky Beer Cheese Festival | |
| Location: | Winchester, Kentucky, United States[1] |
| Years Active: | 2009–2019, 2022– |
| Sponsors: | Shop Local Kentucky, Clark Regional Medical Center, Ale-8-One, Clark County Farm Bureau, and others |
| Website: | Winchester Beer Cheese Festival |
The Kentucky Beer Cheese Festival is a celebration of beer cheese, an original and unique Kentucky delicacy.[2] This festival's a one-day summertime event[3] held in downtown Winchester, Kentucky,[4] [5] birthplace of beer cheese.
The first Beer Cheese Festival took place in June 2009 and was attended by more than 8,000 people.[6] In 2016, nearly 20,000 people attended.[7]
The only casualty of the event was since 2020: officials cited the COVID-19 pandemic as grounds for scrapping it.
The event features a competition among amateur and commercial beer cheese makers, as well as live music, art and craft displays, a beer "garden" and traditional festival foods.[8] Festival attendees can also sample and vote for their favorite beer cheese to win a People's Choice Award.[9]
The Beer Cheese Festival is the only event celebrating beer cheese in the world.[10] People travel hundreds of miles across many states/countries to sample different varieties of the Kentucky creation.[11]
Mental Floss included the Beer Cheese Festival in their list of "12 Highly Specific (and Extremely Delicious) Food Festivals."[12] Mashable included the Beer Cheese Festival in their list of "14 food festivals that show how serious America is about food."