BALTIMORE — Kevin Liles first attended Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown series, as a teenager with his father in the 1980s. But it was years down the line before he fully understood what was happening at the Pimlico Race Course.
“You cut me open, I bleed Baltimore. So I knew about Preakness since I was a little kid,” Liles said. “But I never felt like it was something — even though it was in the Pimlico area — I didn’t really know that it was something that we could have access to or we should even go to.”
Liles is the chairman and CEO of the multi-genre record label 300 Elektra Entertainment in addition to serving as the curator of Preakness Live, the food, music and art festival that happens alongside the horse racing. He made waves last year by bringing rapper Megan Thee Stallion and icon Ms. Lauryn Hill to headline the event; this year, the star power is being brought by Bruno Mars. Liles estimated there was a 30-40% uptick in people of color attending last year’s Preakness.
