FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

For more information contact:
Bill Clary

(502) 564-4696

BEEF EATERS WILL CELEBRATE KENTUCKY’S CATTLE INDUSTRY

HARRODSBURG – Thousands of visitors will converge on Harrodsburg June 6-8 to celebrate Kentucky’s beef industry and enjoy the products of its labors at the Fort Harrod Beef Festival.

The third annual festival again will feature a beef grill off at the Mercer County Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 7. Professional, amateur and youth teams will compete to grill the best briskets, steaks, and backyard burgers. Spectators may purchase a $6 bracelet to sample the results and vote for their favorites. A burger and steak competition for youth also is scheduled.

The most popular event, the Saturday morning steak and egg breakfast at Old Fort Harrod State Park, also costs $6.

Other festival activities include a juried arts and crafts fair, five-kilometer run-walk, an antique car show, line dancing, twilight tours of Fort Harrod, team roping, professional chefs, pageants for all ages, children’s activities and musical acts.

The festival celebrates a Kentucky beef cattle industry that is the largest east of the Mississippi River and eighth in the nation. Kentucky had 2.4 million beef cattle as of Jan. 1, according to the Kentucky field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Harrodsburg native and Cincinnati businessman Ralph Anderson is a key festival sponsor. Anderson owns Anderson Circle Farm, an industry pacesetting Angus beef cattle producer.

LeMayne Ellis, a Harrodsburg veterinarian and Mercer County Fair Board chairman, and Joan Huffman of the Kentucky Parks Department direct the festival. They are assisted by 20 year-round committee members and hundreds of volunteers.

For more information, go to www.fortharrodbeeffestival.org.

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