From Bo Derek to 'This Is Us': 20 years at the biggest Derby Eve party in the Commonwealth

And I thought the Derby would be crazy.

The first Friday in May 1998, not even two months into my new job as a reporter for the Herald-Leader, I found myself wearing a tuxedo and traveling in a car with some photographer colleagues looking for the right turn off of Bardstown Road in Louisville to get to the home of local socialite Patricia Barnstable Brown.

The annual celebrity-packed Kentucky Derby Eve gala she threw with her twin sister, Priscilla Barnstable, was already legend in Louisville and celebrity circles. But even with colleagues like my co-writer that night, now-former Herald-Leader reporter Beverly Fortune, priming me on the event, I was not quite prepared for the spectacle of stars I watched on big and small screens descending on a private home for a massive soiree.

The winding drive to the Barnstable Brown residence was lit up with lights and stages featuring local dancers young and adult, and the back yard was covered by tents over a multi-level dining room, dance floor and stage where some of the music stars that night would eventually play.

On the red carpet out front, where celebrities meet the press, I quickly found myself face-to-face with Robert Duvall — Boo Radley, the Great Santini, "Godfather" consigliere, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Robert Duvall.

Despite the towering screen presence, he was a great first Derby celeb, as we connected on shared Virginia ties and a love of horses that brought him to the Derby. Later that evening, stars such as Dennis Hopper and Bo Derek, coming off as far more earthy but no less beautiful than my teenage memories, walked through.

And that is how I spent Derby Eve for the next two decades, logging my 20th Barnstable Brown Party last year with a guest list that included regulars such as Travis Tritt and Chaka Khan, who as there my first year, and newcomers such as "This is Us" heartthrob Justin Hartley and musician, actor and TV host Harry Connick Jr.

A lot has happened in the ensuing years, from how the party is covered, to who has come and turned heads.

When we started, we would set up shop behind the Barnstable Brown home, usually next to the portable bathroom trailer and under a tent we had to put up. Glamorous, eh? We liked to call it "camping in formal wear." Back in the dial up days, we ordered up a special phone line just for the event that we used to send stories and photos back to Lexington for the next day's paper. A really nice aspect of that was we had something of a front balcony seat when musicians such as Michael McDonald, George Strait or Boyz II Men took the stage.

Now, our coverage is much more online and streamlined, frequently sending stories and images from phones and iPads, with video playing an increasingly prominent role.

The constant has been the stars, and fans that gather outside the home, hoping to coax a few celebrities to come over to them and say hi, snap a selfie and even sign an autograph.

The Barnstable Brown Party, which celebrates its 30th edition Friday night, is by no means the only Derby party that welcomes celebrity guests. When I got here, Lexington's Anita Madden was in a rivalry with the Barnstables for the most star-studded affair until her party came to an end in 1998. And there have been a few years that other events have grabbed higher-profile stars. But over the 20 years I have covered it, the Barnstable party has endured as the most consistent, often turning heads with gets like Paris Hilton, the Backstreet Boys and their boy band rivals N Sync — former member Joey Fatone is now a Derby and Barnstable regular.

There was a distinct reality show era, topped by model and actress Anna Nicole Smith arriving in 2003 trailed by a crew from her E! series "The Anna Nicole Show." This created a legacy, as it turned out, when Smith met Louisville-based photographer Larry Birkhead and they had a daughter, Dannielynn. Birkhead has been a party regular, recently accompanied by Dannielynn, ever since Smith's death in 2007.

Other celebrities brought their own events to the Barnstable Party, including country star Miranda Lambert, who made the event part of a bachelorette weekend before her marriage to Blake Shelton in 2011, and late in Jay Leno's reign as "The Tonight Show" host, a few segments with correspondent Ross the Intern were shot there.

Personally, I will never forget Kid Rock's first visit to the party, accompanied by model and actress Pamela Anderson. He came in wearing a black tank top with a two-word, seven letter phrase scrawled on the back that we can't print in the paper. One of our photographers commented, "If I tried to come in dressed like that, I wouldn't get past the door." True, but it's Kid Rock, who sort of epitomized something of an anything-goes aspect to the night and Derby weekend. (To his credit, Rock has become another party regular and cleaned up nicely.)

For the 21st year, I'll be there, squeezed in with my colleagues and folks from media outlets around the commonwealth and the country. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, particularly on a rainy night, and a little tedious waiting for the flow of celebrities to start. But it's also the biggest party in the Commonwealth. Why would you want to be anywhere else?

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This story was originally published May 2, 2018 at 2:59 PM with the headline "From Bo Derek to 'This Is Us': 20 years at the biggest Derby Eve party in the Commonwealth."