Mason County Kentucky Simon Kenton Festival

Frontier history takes over the streets of Old Washington each September, when the Simon Kenton Festival fills a historic district of Maysville, in Mason County, Kentucky, with presentations, pioneer games, music, museum tours and artisans. The weekend honours the frontiersman whose name it carries. Simon Kenton established Kenton’s Station in seventeen eighty-four and is regarded locally as a founder of Washington and of Maysville, and the organiser’s own event site says the annual festival was started in Washington to honour him. That same site states that the gathering always falls on the third weekend in September. The documented record behind the festival is solid rather than deep: the organiser’s own schedule pages, a local newspaper datebook and a history-blog layer trace editions from two thousand nineteen through two thousand twenty-four, complete with annual billings, one cancellation and one bronze statue.

About the Festival

Every layer read prints the event as the Simon Kenton Festival, whether the source is the organiser’s own event site, a local newspaper datebook or a convention-and-visitors-bureau guide, and the sheet title behind this article matches that printed form exactly. Old Washington is no longer a separate town: it was annexed by Maysville in nineteen ninety and survives as a historic district of the larger community, lying on US 68 about four miles south of downtown Maysville. The festival unfolds on the streets of that district, so the setting itself is part of the programme.

One civic detail deserves care, because the layers read draw a clear line. Encyclopedia and county-seat reference layers confirm Maysville as the county seat of Mason County today. Old Washington held that role long ago, serving as the original county seat from seventeen eighty-eight to eighteen forty-eight, but it is not the seat now, and the two facts are kept separate here.

No layer read prints an incorporated organiser name for the festival. Its own pages sit on the Historic Washington village site, while the local newspaper datebook sends readers to the Maysville tourism site for further information. The organiser’s own site also prints an email address for the festival; that address is noted here only as existing, and is not reproduced.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Published name	Simon Kenton Festival
Host community	Old Washington, a historic district of Maysville
County	Mason County, Kentucky
Present county seat	Maysville
Original county seat	Old Washington, from seventeen eighty-eight to eighteen forty-eight
Setting	Streets of the Old Washington historic district, on US 68 about four miles south of downtown Maysville
Standing timing	Always the third weekend in September, per the organiser’s own site
Documented billings	43rd Annual in two thousand nineteen; 44th Annual in two thousand twenty; 47th Annual in two thousand twenty-three
Programme core	Frontier-history presentations, pioneer games, live music, museum tours, artisans and craft vendors
Gate admission	No price is printed in the layers read, and none is assumed

History

The organiser’s own site gives the festival a purpose rather than a start date. It states that the annual festival was started in Washington to honour Simon Kenton, the frontiersman who established Kenton’s Station in seventeen eighty-four and whom local tradition regards as a founder of Washington and Maysville alike. What the site does not give is a founding year for the festival itself, and no other layer read supplies one either. The annual billings that survive are therefore the honest spine of its history, set out here exactly as printed, without arithmetic. The edition of the twenty-first to the twenty-second of September two thousand nineteen was billed the 43rd Annual Simon Kenton Festival. The following year’s gathering, dated the nineteenth to the twentieth of September two thousand twenty, was billed the 44th Annual, and it never happened: the organiser’s own page records that it was cancelled because of Covid-19. Two thousand twenty-three brought a promotion as the 47th Annual Simon Kenton Festival in a history-blog layer published on the first of August that year. Those three billings prove a long-running event, but converting any of them into a start year would go beyond what the layers state, so this article does not.

For a useful comparison, see the Mason County Kentucky Maysville International Festival for another county festival.

Between those billings sits the festival’s most tangible milestone. On Saturday, the seventeenth of September two thousand twenty-two, a life-size bronze statue of Simon Kenton was unveiled in Old Washington during the festival, a moment a history-blog layer records. A statue is a permanent addition to the village rather than a weekend attraction, and its unveiling inside the programme ties the commemoration to the streetscape.

One more claim needs handling plainly, because it circulates. An AI content-farm layer asserts that the festival was established in nineteen seventy-four, is held in Washington Court House, Ohio, and runs in July two thousand twenty-five. Every element of that is wrong for this event: wrong town, wrong state and wrong season, and the claim is disowned here and used for nothing.

What to Expect

Frontier history is the headline act. The organiser’s own schedule page for the two thousand nineteen edition lists presentations on Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, the two names most closely bound up with Kentucky’s frontier story, and the same billing rounds out the weekend with pioneer games, music, museum tours and artisans. A history-blog layer describing the two thousand twenty-three promotion repeats the same recipe almost exactly: presentations, pioneer games, music, museum tours and artisans across a two-day historical event. The local newspaper’s datebook entry for the fourteenth to the fifteenth of September two thousand twenty-four compresses the offer into four words: Games, music, tours, artisans. Craft vendors stand alongside the artisans in the wider programme summary the layers support, so handmade work is on sale as well as on demonstration.

Because the fullest programme detail comes from the organiser’s own older schedule pages, the record describes the festival’s established shape better than any single recent year. What recurs across the documented editions is consistent: talks that put the frontier past in front of an audience, games drawn from pioneer life, live music, doors opened at the village museums, and makers spread through the streets, with the bronze statue of Kenton standing in the district as a fixed point.

Planning Your Visit

Timing is the easiest part of the plan. The organiser’s own site states that the festival is always held on the third weekend in September, and for the year its page describes it gives hours of nine in the morning to six in the evening on Saturday and ten in the morning to five in the evening on Sunday. Those hours belong to that page’s year and are fenced to it here; a later edition may keep them or adjust them, and the layers read do not say. The documented editions agree with the third-weekend rule, running from the twenty-first to the twenty-second of September in two thousand nineteen to the fourteenth to the fifteenth in two thousand twenty-four.

Getting there is a short hop. The grounds are the streets of the Old Washington historic district, on US 68 about four miles south of downtown Maysville, so most visitors will base themselves in Maysville or pass through it. On cost, the record is silent and this article stays silent with it: no gate admission price is printed in the layers read, and none is assumed, so a budget should allow for whatever the current year sets rather than relying on a figure from here. For questions, the organiser’s own site prints an email address for the festival, and the newspaper datebook directs readers to the Maysville tourism site for more information.

A Sample Itinerary

A two-day visit can follow the grain of the documented programme. Arrive in Old Washington on Saturday morning near the nine o’clock opening the organiser’s page gives for its year, and give the first hour to the streets themselves, walking the historic district before the presentations begin. Spend the late morning with the frontier-history talks, where Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone anchor the storytelling, then break for the pioneer games and the artisan rows through the middle of the day. Keep the afternoon for the museum tours, and pause at the bronze statue of Kenton that was unveiled during the two thousand twenty-two festival. Sunday runs shorter on the organiser’s page, ten in the morning to five in the evening, which suits a slower pass: catch any presentation missed on Saturday, revisit a favourite maker, and leave the final hour for a last walk through the district before the drive back through Maysville.

Saturday Set Beside Sunday

The two days of the weekend are not twins. On the organiser’s own page, Saturday is the long day, running nine in the morning to six in the evening, while Sunday starts an hour later and closes an hour earlier, ten in the morning to five in the evening. The documented programme elements are described for the weekend as a whole rather than split by day in the layers read, so the honest contrast is one of hours and pace, not of content: Saturday offers the fuller window, Sunday the gentler one.

Old Washington also hosts Frontier Christmas and the Washington Art & Chocolate Festival, and both are distinct events with their own seasons and purposes. Neither is part of the Simon Kenton Festival, nothing from their programmes is borrowed here, and a visitor drawn by frontier history should not mistake a December or chocolate-themed date for this September weekend.

A Visitor Checklist

A short list covers the essentials the record supports:

• Circle the third weekend in September, the slot the organiser’s own site names as permanent.
• Note the different daily hours the organiser’s page gives for its year: Saturday nine to six, Sunday ten to five.
• Plan the short run south from downtown Maysville along US 68 into the Old Washington historic district.
• Leave room in the day for museum tours alongside the presentations and pioneer games.
• Carry a question or two for the frontier-history presenters, whose talks anchor the programme.
• Use the email address printed on the organiser’s own site for queries the record cannot answer.
• Treat any admission figure found elsewhere with caution, since the layers read print no gate price.

Beyond the Festival

The festival borrows its stage from a village that rewards attention in its own right. Old Washington’s streets form a preserved historic district within Maysville, annexed in nineteen ninety yet visibly older than the city around it. The bronze statue of Simon Kenton, unveiled during the two thousand twenty-two edition, remains in the district after the crowds leave, giving the frontiersman a permanent presence in the settlement he is said to have helped found. Maysville itself, about four miles north along US 68, is the present county seat and the natural base for food, lodging and the tourism information the newspaper datebook points toward. A visitor who comes for the festival and stays for the district gets both halves of the story.

Why the Festival Matters

Small festivals earn their keep by keeping a specific story in public view, and this one’s story is unusually local. The organiser’s own site says the gathering was started in Washington to honour a man regarded locally as a founder of Washington and Maysville, and it still returns each September to the streets of the settlement that grew from Kenton’s Station. The billings printed across the record, a 43rd Annual, a 44th Annual lost to a pandemic, a 47th Annual after it, sketch an event with deep roots in the community’s calendar, even though the layers read never state the year those roots began. Holding the line through a cancellation, and marking the return years with a statue unveiling, suggests a commemoration the village treats as part of its identity rather than a disposable weekend attraction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which part of Maysville hosts the weekend?

The festival takes place in Old Washington, a historic district of Maysville since its annexation in nineteen ninety, roughly four miles south of downtown along US 68. Maysville is the present county seat of Mason County; Old Washington held that title only in an earlier era, from seventeen eighty-eight to eighteen forty-eight.

What happened to the edition billed as the 44th Annual?

It was cancelled. The organiser’s own page dates that edition to the nineteenth to the twentieth of September two thousand twenty and records the cancellation as a consequence of Covid-19. The next billing the layers read print after it is the 47th Annual attached to two thousand twenty-three.

What was unveiled during the two thousand twenty-two festival?

A life-size bronze statue of Simon Kenton. A history-blog layer records the unveiling in Old Washington on Saturday, the seventeenth of September two thousand twenty-two, in the middle of that year’s festival, and the statue remains a permanent feature of the district.

Where can visitors send questions about the festival?

The organiser’s own site prints an email address for the festival, noted here by existence only and not reproduced. The local newspaper datebook additionally directs readers to the Maysville tourism site for more information about the weekend.

What to Expect From the Next Mason County Kentucky Simon Kenton Festival

How often is Mason County Kentucky Simon Kenton Festival held?

The organiser’s own site describes an annual event and fixes its place as the third weekend in September, and every documented edition in the record, from two thousand nineteen through two thousand twenty-four, sits in that same September slot. The rhythm the layers support is one edition each year, anchored to that weekend.

When is the next Mason County Kentucky Simon Kenton Festival?

By the organiser’s own standing rule, the next edition falls on the third weekend of September. The layers read document the weekend most recently on the fourteenth to the fifteenth of September two thousand twenty-four in a newspaper datebook, and they carry no confirmed date beyond that listing, so the third-weekend rule is the firmest guide the record provides.

Will the dates change?

The September anchor looks settled, because the organiser’s own site states the third weekend as a standing arrangement rather than a single year’s choice. The two thousand twenty cancellation shows that an edition can be lost to circumstances beyond the organisers’ control, but nothing in the layers read points to a move away from September or from Old Washington’s streets.

Closing Thoughts

The Simon Kenton Festival asks little of its visitors beyond a September weekend and an interest in the frontier past. In return it offers presentations, games, music, tours and craft work in a village that Simon Kenton himself helped plant, documented by its organisers with a consistency that makes the record easy to trust and easy to check. For a small gathering in a historic district, that is a respectable offer.