First Friday to feature UK football players

ASHLAND First Friday is around the corner in Ashland and a unique addition is planned to kick off the return.

More than 20 University of Kentucky football players will be available from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday for memorabilia signing and fan greetings as part of 2024’s first “First Friday.”

Brandy Clark, Visit AKY Director, said a local man, Ryan Miller — Chief Executive Officer of Athlete Advantage, an NIL company in Lexington — pitched the idea.

“He brought the event to us wanting to have a fan fest in his hometown and we gladly partnered with him. … King’s Daughters and Peoples Bank have become sponsors to help us,” she said.

Individuals are prohibited to bring memorabilia or other items from “outside” to be autographed, she said.

“There is specific merchandise that can be purchased,” Clark said. “… If they don’t want to purchase anything to get signed, they can just go through, meet them and take pictures. Normally there is a price but thanks to King’s Daughters and Peoples Bank, we do not have to charge and it is free.”

First Friday features vendors, local food trucks and live music to the streets of downtown. Due to the construction on Winchester Avenue, Clark said the location of the event has shifted.

“This will be a little bit different from our normal First Friday. Our road construction on Winchester has forced us to shift the event over one block and scale it down from four blocks to two,” she said.

Due to concern for vehicle damage, Clark said, “it was best to cancel the ‘car cruise-in’ or car show for the month of June,” citing road conditions on Winchester Avenue.

“The whole event will be on Carter Avenue between 17th and 15th Streets and all along Broadway Square. It will go down Carter, up 16th Street, down Carter and up 15th,” Clark said.

She expects 30 local vendors to come out in addition to the retailers already open downtown, Clark said

“We’ve got five food trucks coming, a couple of drink trucks and we are going to have a local band called The Chase,” Clark said.

The stage will be set up at the intersection of 16th Street and Carter Avenue, she said.

“It generates foot traffic downtown and brings people to support our local businesses. It gets a sense of community in our downtown area. It’s important to us to build that community pride,” Clark said about the significance of the event.

Kentucky Wildcats who will be present are as follows, according to Visit AKY: Deone Walker, Brock Vandagriff, Barion Brown, Maxwell Hairston, JJ Weaver, Zion Childress, Josh Kattus, D’eryk Jackson, Demie Sumo-Karngbaye, Octavious Oxendine, Anthony Brown-Stephens, Ja’Mori Maclin, Hardley Gilmore, Jacob Smith, Jerod Smith, Koby Keenum, Cutter Boley, Alex Afari Jr., Alex Raynor, Brian Robinson and Chip Trayanum.