Queens of the Bluegrass

So I was talking to my sister a while back, and it turns out that she has a little thing on the side. See, she helps out at some of the Kentucky Beauties pageants, these beauty pageants that a friend of hers runs around the Bluegrass state.

I'll admit that I'm not so clued in with the whole beauty pageant world, so when she started talking about her weekend in Dry Ridge, KY where the then-latest Kentucky Beauties pageant was held, I had a tons of questions:

• Really, there's no hurdle to entry other than the entry fee?
• What do you mean that they often crown girls champs even though there's only one entry in their category?
• Wait, they had a whole competition based only on the photos that the people hand in? And there's a photo winner in every age group? Ad everybody can submit multiple photos at $20 a pop?
• There' no talent category? No question-and-answer session with each girl? This is a straight-up beauty pageant?
• The winners in each category go on to some kind of Kentucky Beauties state-wide pageant, but even the rest of the competitors can advance if they want to and are willing to pay a fee?
• And these people run pageants twenty or so weekends a year as a full-out money making gig clearing thousands of dollars in a single day each time?
• They also rent out booths to companies and people that sell pageant stuff - dresses, photos, make-up, stuff - boosting their revenue even more?

Brilliant...