Thursday, February 16, 2017. Louisville, KY.   – It’s a sure sign of spring!  The first shipment of the Kentucky Derby Festival Pegasus Pins arrived this morning at Evan Williams Bourbon Experience on Main Street. It’s the first place you can purchase a 2017 Pegasus Pin beginning today. Heaven Hill Distillery has also produced a special Evan Williams Single Barrel Gold Pegasus Pin Edition bottle to commemorate the 45th edition of the collectible pins. The bottle features a Gold Pegasus Pin sealed in wax atop each bottle.

“The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience is proud to partner with the Kentucky Derby Festival to share the unique Kentucky spirit that is unmatched elsewhere,” said Evan Williams Bourbon Experience Artisanal Distiller Charlie Downs. “We’re honored to raise a toast to Kentucky’s heritage and welcome Festival Fans across the globe to join in celebrating the 2017 Kentucky Derby.”

Evan Williams Bourbon Experience at 528 W. Main Street will be the only location in town selling Pegasus Pins through March 6th. This year’s pin design is a throwback to the original Pegasus Pin designed in 1973. The plastic pin features a cutout design with a warm red colored Pegasus in the center, surrounded by gray, white and teal colors. The commemorative bottles are available for purchase at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience while supplies last for $74.99.

In March, the pins will become available at 1,000 retail locations and will sell for $6 each.The price at the entrance to events will be $7. Pins will be sold in grocery stores, gas stations, banks and other retail outlets around Kentuckiana from Elizabethtown to Louisville and in Southern Indiana, as well as online at PegasusPins.com. Family Fun Packs, which include a package of 5 Pegasus Pins, also return this year for $25. Children 6 and under are not required to have a Pegasus Pin for admission to Festival events.

“You can’t lose with the purchase of a Pegasus Pin,” said Mike Berry, President and CEO of the Kentucky Derby Festival. “They are a tremendous value providing free admission into more than half of the Festival’s events, and any 2017 plastic pin could make you a Grand Prize winner.”

The Festival will give away 8 Weekly Grand Prizes and any 2017 Pegasus Pin can win. The prizes will be given away on Fridays beginning Friday, March 17, through Friday, May 5. Some of this year’s Weekly Grand Prizes include an Evan Williams Bourbon Experience Speakeasy Party, $2,500 AAA East Central Vacation Package; $2,500 Kroger Fuel Card, $2,500 Commonwealth Credit Union Visa Gift Card, $2,500 Louisville City FC Package, $2,500 Meijer Shopping Spree and more. The drawings will be broadcast on WAVE 3 TV.

Those who find and register a Gold Winner Pegasus Pin also have a chance to win the Gold Pin Grand Prize – a 2017 Honda CR-V. With more than 12,000 of these pins in circulation, the odds of finding a Gold Winner Pegasus Pin are approximately 1 in 20.

Along with the chance to win Grand Prizes, each Pegasus Pin envelope also includes 3 coupons provided by retail partners including Kroger, Raising Canes, Meijer and Liquor Barn, to name a few.

About Pegasus Pins: The Pegasus Pin program was started as an awareness campaign for the Derby Festival in 1973. At that time, only 10,000 of the plastic pins were produced. The 1973 version of the pin is valued at $800-$1,000 and it’s rare to find them. Since then, the pins have become one of the primary sources of funding for Derby Festival events. More than 250,000 of the pins are produced each year and the pin program has become a way for the community to have ownership in the Festival and show pride in the region’s largest celebration.

502.584.FEST| 1001 S. Third Street| Louisville, Kentucky 40203