2025 Poster and Artist

2025 Great American Brass Band Festival Poster a Derby Winner; designed by 2024 KY Derby Artist

The GABBF poster is a staple of the 35-year festival, and for 2025, we picked a real winner for an artist. Wylie Caudill from Cynthiana was the KY Derby 2024's Official Artist and he has graciously designed our 2025 event poster.

Wylie Caudill's most featured work is the 2024 Woodford Reserve KY Derby Commemorative Bottle, which showcases his style of florals and strong sense of color, and the 2025 GABBF poster showcases some of those same qualities. When he learned the theme of this year's festival, "Brass in the Bluegrass", his sense of florals came immediately into play, filling a bluegrass-covered french horn with Kentucky wildflowers, including our state flower the Goldenrod.

The warm and bold colors of these Kentucky wildflowers is complemented by deep blue-green of the Kentucky bluegrass, which coats the rolling hills and gorgeous horse farms. Bluegrass covers the body of the gorgeous french horn shape which is set in the foreground of a beautiful blue Kentucky sky, and of course, a horse farm fence line bringing the "Brass in the Bluegrass" to life.

Wylie calls Kentucky home, and his rise to the art scene began with a simple medium... chalk.

"While working toward my degree in Broadcasting, I occupied my free time with chalk. All over campus I would leave my mark. Chalk drawings popped up everywhere. This is where my love for large scale art developed. By the time I graduated in 2018, I had quite the Instagram following. I started my freshman year with maybe 400 followers, and ended with close to 2,000. It seemed like everyone on campus knew me as the “Chalk Guy.”

Then one day, Ky for Ky got a phone call from a restaurant called “The Stave” in Frankfort, Ky. They asked KY for Ky if they could have permission to paint a mural of one of their logos, the “Kentucky Kicks Ass” logo. The company granted them permission. There was only one issue. The restaurant didn’t know a mural artist. So, Ky for Ky asked if I would be interested. I jumped at the chance.

Next thing ya know, my first professional mural was created. Soon after this I painted a few more Ky for Ky branded murals such as the Fun Mall logo and the Lexington Rainbow.

Since being a full-time artist, I have worked with MTV, Mountain Dew, and Youtube. I have gone viral on TikTok a dozen times or so, with over 200K followers to support me."

The GABBF is so grateful to Wylie Caudill for working with us to make this piece happen, and his professionalism and graciousness shows real support for arts organizations and non-profits.