Duncan Hines Days making 2023 comeback

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Duncan Hines Days is returning June 5-11 in 2023.

The Duncan Hines Days will include a Restaurant Week, highlighting the best of Southern Kentucky eats and drinks, culminating with a multi-day, multi-venue, weekend festival of events around the community showcasing the best in Southern Kentucky entertainment and travel.

As home of Duncan Hines, the real man behind the cake mix and one of the most trusted household names in food and travel, Bowling Green’s newest event revives an old tradition.

Before he was a trusted name on everything from cake mix to biscuits, Hines was the original road tripper and influencer, and was born and raised in Bowling Green.

A WKU alumni, he was a traveling salesman turned food and travel guidebook publisher.

“Duncan Hines is not just the name behind the cake mix. This is not necessarily even a celebration of like him as the man himself. It’s more about the heritage of what he represented and what he brought to Bowling Green when it comes to food and drink and culinary history, travel experience history and the entertainment piece of what it was like to go on that good old fashioned family road trip,” says Telia Butler the Downtown BGKY Development Coordinator.

When he traveled the country’s highways, he kept a journal of roadside places he dined and overnighted in that were clean and safe, which evolved into “Adventures in Good Eating,” “Lodging for a Night,” and “Duncan Hines’ Vacation Guide” books, all published in the 1930s-1950s.

Dividends from the sales of his books went toward scholarships for hospitality students at universities across the country.

An entrepreneur by nature, he sold the use of his name for a trusted food and lifestyle brand, and rented “Recommended by Duncan Hines” labels or signage to eateries, hotels, and venues around the country. Travelers would seek these recommendations on their adventures.

Butler also adds, the city wants this event to really represent what Bowling Green is all about.

“This can and we hope will become the Bowling Green signature event that food drink entertainment experience applies to everyone, all inclusive all the things and we want to make it an annual event and see it grow,” she says.

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