04:44 PM EDT on Wednesday, April 19, 2006

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Kentucky Derby Festival and organizers of a new Derby Week event have reached an agreement for the event to be renamed in order to avoid any misunderstanding as to who is sponsoring the activities. At a press conference on March 21, 2006, a group of community and business leaders announced plans for a new event to be known as “DerbyMusicFest2006.” Organizers said the event was intended to provide positive, inexpensive, safe and entertaining activities for young adults during Kentucky Derby weekend. While the Kentucky Derby Festival supports the activities, it expressed concern that the name could cause confusion with Official Derby Festival events and would infringe on the Kentucky Derby Festival’s federal trademark in the name “Derby Festival.”  Both groups worked together to find a suitable name that would serve to properly differentiate the new event name from the Kentucky Derby Festival. The new name that was selected is “Derby Music Jam.”

“We are very supportive of this new event for the community and wish them great success,” said Ben Johnson, Kentucky Derby Festival Senior Vice President/Chief Operating Officer. “We think this new name will help the public understand that Derby Music Jam is a new event and information is not available through the Kentucky Derby Festival. Unfortunately, the timing of the creation of this new event did not permit consideration for adding it to the Official Derby Festival schedule for 2006. Both parties are considering this option for 2007.”