See Somerset earns Traverse Award for Moonlight Festival promotion in state tourism competition

Director Leslie Ikerd named to the nominating committee for KTIA’s board of directors

See Somerset’s Moon­light Fes­ti­val has become a sta­ple of the fall sea­son in down­town Som­er­set, attract­ing thou­sands from across the region and state to cel­e­brate music, art, spir­its and culi­nary excel­lence. Now, it has been rec­og­nized for excel­lence in tourism mar­ket­ing by the Ken­tucky Trav­el Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion (KTIA).

See Som­er­set received a bronze Tra­verse Award at KTIA’s fall con­fer­ence Nov. 5–7 in the PR ini­tia­tive cat­e­go­ry for its efforts in pro­mot­ing the Moon­light Fes­ti­val. This cat­e­go­ry rec­og­nizes strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tion efforts relat­ed to an event, pro­gram, enti­ty, des­ti­na­tion or over­all tourism pro­mo­tion.

Hav­ing just wrapped up one of its largest events to date, Moon­light Fes­ti­val is head­ed into its eighth year. This free down­town event puts live music cen­ter stage, fea­tur­ing local­ly and nation­al­ly renowned musi­cians who play through­out the day. Local and region­al artists sur­round the square, cre­at­ing in real time to a pre-estab­lished theme that cel­e­brates Somerset’s rich arts cul­ture. And fes­ti­val-goers get their fill of food and spir­it ven­dors that show­case the best of Ken­tuck­y’s fla­vors.

The award rec­og­nizes the festival’s brand and out­reach efforts, which heav­i­ly rely on See Somerset’s thriv­ing organ­ic social media audi­ence to reach both locals and vis­i­tors. 

“Before each fes­ti­val, See Som­er­set slow­ly opens the door to every­thing fes­ti­val-goers can expect to expe­ri­ence at Moon­light,” See Som­er­set Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Leslie Ikerd said. “Food ven­dors, artists and musi­cians — the idea is to slow­ly build excite­ment about this event, while offer­ing impor­tant infor­ma­tion peo­ple need to know before they attend and drib­bling videos through­out the day show­ing peo­ple what they’re miss­ing if they haven’t yet ven­tured down­town. We have expe­ri­enced record-high atten­dance as a result of this approach, and the impact has rever­ber­at­ed through our down­town busi­ness­es and ven­dors, many of whom sold out or had record gross sales for the day. I am so grate­ful to the judges for rec­og­niz­ing our efforts to pro­mote this event, which was cre­at­ed as part of a series of free fes­ti­vals intend­ed to light up down­town Som­er­set with music, art, food and cel­e­bra­tion.”

Entries for the Tra­verse Awards are judged by an inde­pen­dent pan­el of out-of-state tourism indus­try pro­fes­sion­als, with eval­u­a­tion cri­te­ria includ­ing con­cept, cre­ativ­i­ty, results, and impact. This year’s com­pe­ti­tion drew more than 200 sub­mis­sions, mak­ing it Kentucky’s largest and most pres­ti­gious tourism mar­ket­ing con­test.

Ikerd, who has led See Som­er­set since its estab­lish­ment in 2013, was also elect­ed at the con­fer­ence to serve on KTIA’s nom­i­nat­ing com­mit­tee for its board of direc­tors. Mem­bers of this com­mit­tee vet nom­i­nees and present a slate of direc­tors and offi­cers at each KTIA fall con­fer­ence for con­sid­er­a­tion and elec­tion.

“It is an hon­or to be elect­ed to serve on KTIA’s nom­i­nat­ing com­mit­tee,” Ikerd said. “Kentucky’s tourism indus­try is dri­ven by col­lab­o­ra­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty, and KTIA plays a vital role in fos­ter­ing both. To be entrust­ed with help­ing shape the lead­er­ship of this orga­ni­za­tion is incred­i­bly mean­ing­ful. I look for­ward to rep­re­sent­ing Som­er­set and the many com­mu­ni­ties across our state that are work­ing every day to ele­vate Kentucky’s tourism econ­o­my.”

KTIA rep­re­sents var­i­ous seg­ments of Kentucky’s tourism indus­try, which con­tributes over $14 bil­lion to the state’s econ­o­my. The 1,000-member asso­ci­a­tion engages in advo­ca­cy and pro­vides its mem­bers with edu­ca­tion, infor­ma­tion and busi­ness devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. The asso­ci­a­tion also works to inform the pub­lic of the enor­mous eco­nom­ic, employ­ment and tax rev­enue con­tri­bu­tions tourism makes to the peo­ple of Ken­tucky.