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Some came because they loved history. Others came because they loved the arts.
Regardless, Kentucky's first celebration to kick off the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln drew a sold-out and rapt audience Sunday to the University of Kentucky Singletary Center for the Arts.
Our Lincoln, the first of many celebrations over the next two years celebrating the 16th president's Kentucky ties, drew about 1,500 people and featured more than 300 performers.
U.S. Rep Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, reminded the crowd that Lincoln was a renowned storyteller. And now his story is being told -- through theater, music and even dance.
Master of ceremonies Nick Clooney, a Northern Kentucky journalist and father of Hollywood star George Clooney, reminded the crowd that Lincoln was born here and spent seven years in Kentucky. Lincoln remembered picking blackberries, going fishing here, and walking up to 6 miles to a one-room schoolhouse with his sister.
The audience was treated to several new works featuring Lincoln, including Kentucky is My Land, performed by the Lexington Singers, the Lexington Singers' Children's Choir and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra.
Actor Terry Snead of the Kentucky Repertory Theatre gave the audience a peek at Wade Hall's new work, One Man's Lincoln. Snead portrayed Lincoln's longtime law partner, Kentucky native Billy Herndon.
But one of the greatest draws was the preview of Joseph Barber's River of Time, a new opera about Lincoln's early years in the Bluegrass State that the UK Opera will perform in 2009 at the Lexington Opera House.
Twentieth-century composer Aaron Copeland's A Lincoln Portrait, which combines music and many of Lincoln's speeches, may best explain Lincoln's appeal 199 years after his birth and more than 140 years after his death. Roger Leasor narrated during the performance by the philharmonic.
Few could say it better than Lincoln.
It was at Gettysburg, one of the bloodiest and historic battles of the Civil War, that he reminded America "that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Kentucky's tribute to Lincoln will continue Tuesday with a national celebration in Hodgenville, Lincoln's birthplace. First lady Laura Bush is scheduled to attend.
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Hodgenville dolled up, but Lincoln's not talk of town