Three specialty bourbon cocktails will be enjoyed on Derby Eve by patrons of The Julep Ball exclusively.

Maker’s Mark® will provide three “Maker’s Shakers” cocktails in Mason jars dipped in the Kentucky bourbon distillery’s signature red wax at the ball, set for Friday, May 2, at the KFC Yum! Center.

Ingredients are put into the jars with ice. After the lids are put on to seal the jars, a few vigorous shakes blend the cocktails, and they are then ready to be enjoyed.

At its meeting on March 12, Roy Lee Wigginton and Natalie Stone of Maker’s Mark provided The Julep Ball organizing committee several Maker’s Shakers recipes to sample. The committee selected the three that will be featured at the ball:

• Apple of My Eye: Maker’s Mark, lemon, club soda, apple butter and basil
• Pumpkin Butter Me Up: Maker’s Mark, Fleur elderflower liqueur, apple cider, pumpkin butter and rosemary
• Strawberry Fields Julep: Maker’s 46, lemon juice, strawberry preserves and mint

The Julep Ball, an official event of the Kentucky Derby®, will be the only Derby-related gala featuring these three Maker’s Shakers. Each Julep Ball patron will be able to take the wax-dipped Maker’s Shaker Mason jar as a memento of the evening as well.

The premier Derby Eve Party with a Purpose, The Julep Ball is held annually on the evening before the Kentucky Derby and supports the work of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville. The event on May 2 at the KFC Yum! Center kicks off with a 6:30 p.m. cocktail reception, followed by dinner and a live auction at 8 p.m.

The Julep Ball provides a celebrity-studded night to remember with a multi-course seated dinner, a knock-your-socks-off auction, multiple open specialty bars, complimentary valet parking, and dancing until the wee hours of Derby morning.

Tickets to The Julep Ball sell out early each year. The full evening’s entertainment is $600 per person, $5,000 for a table of 10, and $100 per person for dance-only tickets. For further information and to buy tickets, go to The Julep Ball website, julepball.org.

The Julep Ball is sponsored in part by Advanced Cancer Therapeutics, Ashton Advertising, Bob Montgomery Dixie Honda, Boutique Serendipity, Dillard’s, Enterprise, Headz Salon, Heaven Hill, Hubbuch & Co., InGrid Design, Jaust Consulting Partners, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, KentuckyOne Health, Kroger, Louisville Magazine, Maker’s Mark, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, Morgan Stanley, MPI Printing, Nfocus, Old 502 Winery, Power Creative, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, WAKY and WHAS11.