Four years. Four consecutive sellouts. General admission gone in under 48 hours. VIP in under four minutes. The Kentucky Bourbon Festival has become one of the most sought-after tickets in the bourbon world — and this week, John sits down with the man who built it, Randy Prasse, Director of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

They dig into what makes KBF different from every other festival on the calendar: the distillery-first philosophy, the evolution of on-site bottle sales, how line management has become a year-round obsession, and why Randy calls it "the CES of bourbon." They also talk New Riff Distilling as the 2026 Featured Distillery — fresh off their World's Best Bourbon win — and what's still available to buy for this September's event.

Topics covered:

How KBF sells out faster every year without raising ticket prices dramatically

The new tiered add-on sales process and why it's better for attendees

Bottle sales: from optional to essentially mandatory, and what's changing in 2026

New Riff as Featured Distillery and the history of the program

Security, safety, and the logistics of doubling a small town's population

What tickets are still available (Sunday Sampler passes!)

Guest

Randy Prasse · Director, Kentucky Bourbon Festival

Links

🌐 kybourbonfestival.com · 📸 Instagram: @kybourbonfest · 📘 Facebook: @kybourbonfest

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