Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Roaming amid the various tailgate setups on cross country day at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, you encounter a lot of impressive setups — fancy to-dos tricked out with bloody mary bars, tiny snacks on toothpicks, and ornamental shrubbery, inhabited by classy-looking people in interesting hats.
The EN tailgate, presented by Amerigo, is … something else.
“The decor aesthetic we’re going for is ‘chinchilla acid trip nightmare,'” I chirped to the crew of volunteers who showed up early to help set up, preferably with mimosas in hand. And they delivered: from a few cardboard boxes full of random red-white-and-blue crap from Party City emerged a sprawling wonderland of eventing insanity.
Its centerpiece: Chinch himself, roaming free against a backdrop of fluttering selfies. This photographic memoir told the story of a life well lived, filled with globe-trotting adventure and four-star friends.
Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Fans visited him throughout the day, passing him around and posing with him for photos.
Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Photo by Leslie Wylie.
At some point during the day, another random stuffed animal friend showed up:
Notice the guy getting an EN temporary tattoo tramp stamp in the background. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Around here you just never know what’s going to happen next!
This year’s tailgate featured a signature cocktail, a spiked lavender lemonade featuring vodka from Prohibition Distillery in Roscoe, New York.
Photo by Leslie Wylie.
We also gave away swag, including EN sunglasses and W.W.MJ.D. bracelets — which we may have to change to W.W.OT.D. for next year’s event.
Many thanks to all the EN friends and family who stopped by, to our volunteers (especially chief chinchilla wrangler and hostess-with-the-mostest Courtney Paige Tiedt), and to our fabulous sponsor Amerigo.
We may have been overlooked for the official Land Rover Best Tailgate award, but if there was an award for Most Insane Tailgate, we’d have it on lock.
Photo by Janer Oxenden.
Red on right, white on left, insanity in the middle. Now more than ever, Go Eventing!
Photo by Leslie Wylie.
#LRK3DE Links: Website, Live Stream, Final Scores, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Ultimate Guide, EN’s Instagram, EN’s Twitter
