Local band Government Cheese performs a set of songs during the Eats and Beats Music Fest at Circus Square Park on Saturday, June 7, 2025, to end the third annual week-long Duncan Hines Days festival events in Bowling Green. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

Despite several rainy days that made some events move indoors and fully canceled one, the third annual week-long Duncan Hines Days brought in just over $2 million to the area, with around 13,000 people visiting Warren County from at least 17 states during the first week of June.

“It was a great week for Bowling Green and Warren County,” Downtown Development Coordinator Telia Butler told the Daily News. “The core value of the entire week is giving a seat for everyone at the community table, and that’s kind of the tagline that we’ve been living by for these first three years of this event.”

The week began with the Fountain Square Nostalgic Block Party event on June 1. From there, the week featured returning events such as Duncan Hines-themed tours at the Historic RailPark and Train Museum, the scavenger hunt at the National Corvette Museum and the Eats and Beats music festival, headlined by The Josephines.

Several new features were added this year. The Rail Park’s trolley played host to the new Dolly Trolley event, where around 30 people dressed as Dolly Parton rode to the Capitol downtown for a showing of the film “9 to 5.”

Also new was the Duncan Hines Night with the Bowling Green Hot Rods, an event Butler said was “fantastic” and was attended by roughly 2,000 people.

Butler said a new partnership was made with the South Union Shaker Village in Logan County, which held baking mix giveaways to 111 attendees.

“It’s unusual, since they’re technically in Logan County, but they are part of a local attractions group that includes attractions from all over the counties that touch us,” she said. “ … South Union jumped in this year for the first time, and they were happy, and they want to do it again.”

In 2024, Duncan Hines Days raked in an estimated $2.96 million from over 17,000 attendees, 4,000 more visitors and over $900,000 more than this year. Butler said the decrease this year is due to the weather, which acted uncooperatively at different points during the week.

The heaviest impacted event was the duck paddle, which had to be canceled. For Eats and Beats, rain fell during the first two acts, which Butler said led to greater attendance for Government Cheese and The Josephines.

“We think that’s the biggest factor as to why those specific attendance numbers were down,” she said.

Of the $2.04 million spent during the week, estimates say 30% of it came from overnight stays with the remaining 70% coming from local visitors.

“Over 50 partners helped put this thing together, and it really shows that the community cares about our quality of life and that people love to live here,” Butler said.

Honoring Duncan Hines’ legacy was not limited to Bowling Green. A team of civil engineering students from Western Kentucky University participated in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ concrete canoe competition in late June with a canoe paying tribute to Hines’ baking legacy.

Dubbed “Sweet Crete,” the 20-foot long, 200 pound craft was emblazoned with pink paint on the outside simulating cake icing with a marble-paint pattern on the inside and placed third overall in the national concrete canoe competition at California Polytechnic State University.

Evan Brittenham, a recent WKU civil engineering graduate and Bowling Green native, said the team in years past has done a Corvette-themed canoe. The Duncan Hines theme this year came from the team looking for a “fresh idea.”

He said the canoe was “eye-catching” at the contest.

“A lot of people were just saying how much they liked it, how much it caught their eyes,” he said.

A group of students from Cumberland Trace Elementary School also focused on Duncan Hines Days while competing at the National Junior Beta Club competition in Florida. Their presentation was themed “Why Duncan?!” and focused on community service and leadership

Duncan Hines Days is set to return May 31 to June 6, 2026.