So, the Kentucky Derby trip is still on for Saturday. I’m still dreading it because it will take 3-4 hours to get there (driving). Once there it will be another 4 or so hours hanging out in the infield. I won’t get to see the horses race live. I’ll watch from a jumbo TV with the rest of the infield crowd. And once it’s all over, it’s back on the road for a 3-4 hour drive home. I don’t have any desire to experience the Kentucky Derby (even from the reserved seating areas where you get to see the actual horse race), much less from the infield. But I’ll be going (unless something changes between now and Saturday at noon) [ UPDATE Saturday May 13 2023: Something did change. The plans were canceled and I did not go to the Kentucky Derby last Saturday May 6th 2023 after all ]
Yesterday I wrote about Kentucky Derby infield dress code. Basically, from everything I was able to learn researching yesterday, you can pretty much wear anything you want if you’ll be experiencing the Kentucky Derby from the infield. You can dress up if you want to dress up or you can dress down. That suggests to me that, yes, you can wear all black to the Kentucky Derby–at least in the infield.
I’ll be choosing to dress down on Saturday because I don’t want to have to deal with wardrobe issues on top of the stress and anxiety of just being out there for 4 hours doing nothing, but just waiting for the member of my 3-person party who will be off with the media personnel watching the actual horses race. So I’ve purchased an all black outfit from Fashion Nova to wear.
I think it’s probably not recommended to wear all black to the Kentucky Derby even if you’ll be watching on a TV at the infield. But I don’t generally like to follow fashion rules. And I definitely don’t want to be part of the derby fashion show. There will be people in the infield who will still take advantage of the opportunity to dress up. It is after all the Kentucky Derby. But I have no intention to be on parade myself. So a black tank top with black pants and a black over-shirt with my old ankle boots will make up my ensemble on Saturday. I’ll wear a black cap ( not to have on a hat for the derby but just to have on a hat for my comfort ). And that will be it for me. Hopefully I’ll get through the event without any issues.
As for you and whether or not you can wear all black to the actual Kentucky derby (reserved seating areas)? I didn’t see anything in the dress code write up on the Kentucky Derby website that suggests you can’t. It does seem to recommend nice bright spring colors, but it doesn’t say you’re required to wear one color or another. More to the point, it does not say you cannot wear black or any other color. You probably can’t wear what I’m going to wear. Or maybe you can? After all, shouldn’t you be free to wear whatever the heck you want? I think so. I can’t imagine they deny entrance to reserved seating ticket holders based on how they’re dressed. But who knows?
I’ll write a post once I’ve experienced the derby from the infield and let you know how it went.
