WASHINGTON — Churchill Downs bugler Steve Buttleman performed the “Call to the Post” to a crowd of Kentuckians and guests Friday night, not at the racetrack, but at a Washington hotel for the Bluegrass Ball.
It was the 19th Bluegrass Ball and the first since 2017. The 2021 ball for President Joe Biden’s inauguration was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizer Rebeckah Adcock said they expected about 1,000 people at the event.
“Every four years, we come together as a nonpartisan organization to celebrate the commonwealth of Kentucky in Washington and to show off the hospitality and goodwill of Kentucky and the peaceful transfer of power, regardless of who is coming into office,” Adcock said.
President-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated Monday, Jan. 20, for a second time. Officials have been scrambling to move the ceremony indoors because of the cold weather.
Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, the most senior member of the House, was there the last time that happened.
“Reagan in … ’85 was the first president to do it indoors,” he recalled. “This is the second one (I) will have been to, where we went indoors.”
The ball brings together Kentucky leaders and guests. In years past, celebrities have attended such as the late Louisville boxing legend Muhammad Ali in 2009 for President Barack Obama's inauguration.
Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers Association, led a toast to the commonwealth’s signature industry, and dismissed a recent Wall Street Journal report declaring the bourbon boom “over.”
Congressional bourbon caucus co-chair Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, said leaders need to do all they can to prevent a 50% tariff on American whiskeys that the European Union is set to impose in just a few months. That’s the result of a steel and aluminum trade dispute from the first Trump administration.
“There’s a lot of European companies that own Kentucky bourbon and so when they impose a tariff, they’re imposing it on themselves, so the key is reciprocal trade,” Barr said. “President Donald Trump will work with me and the rest of the Kentucky delegation to make sure that Kentucky bourbon can continue to export to the rest of the world.”