The Kentucky Beer Cheese Festival has cheesesnowballed into quite the tradition since its inception back in 2009.
Festival attendance has grown by thousands over the years. Downtown Winchester — which claims to be the birthplace of beer cheese — now swells with about 20,000 visitors every second Saturday in June, when the one-of-a-kind event returns.
Just when we thought the Kentucky Beer Cheese Festival was getting pretty big for its britches, festival organizers went + said: “Hold our beer (cheese).”
In 2025, the fest is adding a few “firsts” to make the event even bigger:
- shuttle service from Robert Campbell Jr. High to the city center
- giveaways on social media
- an official Beer Cheese 5k
- a pageant to crown the inaugural Miss Beer Cheese Festival.
We can’t brie-lieve it’s taken 15 years to finally get a festival queen, but, hey — feta late than never.
Of course, you’ll also find these signature staples we’ve all grown so fondue of:
- dozens of snappy, spicy, tangy, creamy cheese spreads to sample
- a battle for bragging rights of “Best Beer-Cheese Maker” in the world
- enough brews + booze to keep the party going into the night
- some of the best musical string pickin’ on
this sideboth sides of the Cumberland Gap.
