Louisville is home to several music festivals during the year that feature 100+ artists known world wide. The two largest festivals are Bourbon & Beyond and Louder than Life, both produced by Danny Wimmer Presents. These two events are hosted at:
The Highland Festival Grounds
1016 Phillips Lane
Louisville, KY 40209
The third largest festival use to be Forecastle. It has been on hiatus and did not return for 2023 and is showing no signs of any return. Instead, Jack Harlow’s new GAZEBO Festival will be taking place May 25 & May 26, 2024 which is located at:
Louisville Waterfront Park
131 River Road
Louisville KY 40204
Louder Than Life is an annual rock festival that takes place in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Originally hosted at Champions Park, it moved to the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center in 2019. The first festival was in 2014 and lasted two days. It was eventually expanded to three. In 2021, the festival was expanded to four days. Two festivals were cancelled: 2018 due to bad weather and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival is known for featuring whiskey, craft beer, gourmet food, and multiple exhibits.
Click here to see last year’s 2023 Louder than Life lineup
Getting a vacation rental from a site like AirBNB or VRBO is the best. For parties 6 or less, check out the Penthouse Condo or the Swanky Condo. For a group of up to 12 people, book both of the condos here.
The dates are Thursday, September 26th to Sunday, September 29th, 2024. Last year in 2023 lineup included top artists such as Foo Fighters, Weezer, Tool, Godsmack, Limp Bizkit, and Green Day! Information and tickets can be found at: https://louderthanlifefestival.com
Top artists for this coming at Louder than Life year include Slipknot, Slayer, Motley Crue, Korn, Seether, Anthrax, Dropkick Murphys, Death Punch, Disturbed, Sum 41, Three 6 Mafia, Judas Priest, and many more. See the complete lineup below.
Bourbon & Beyond is an outdoor music festival with some of the top artists performing in the country. The venue is located on the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center.
If you want to see who performed last year, review the 2023 lineup here.
Bourbon & Beyond is a 4 day event from Thursday September 19, 2024 to September 22, 2024. Artists such as Zach Bryan, Dave Matthews Band, Tyler Childers, Neil Young, Beck, Matchbox Twenty, The National, My Morning Jacket, The War on Drugs, and many more will be live!
Check out the upcoming Bourbon and Beyond 2024 lineup below.
The festival is at the expo center. If you are not camping on the grounds, I highly recommend staying in The Highlands or even Downtown. Although both of these locations are about 5 miles from the festival, you will have the after-parties/night life/best restaurants available to you within walking distance. The area within walking distance to the KY exposition center can be a little boring and some areas are a bit seedy.
If it is available, I recommend this Swanky 2 Level Condo for parties up to 6 people which is walking distance to Bardstown Road and all the fun! The other option is the Penthouse corner condo unit right next door. For parties of up to 12 people, book both condos here!
View last year’s Bourbon and Beyond Festival Map 2023
The Forecastle Festival is a three-day music, art, activism festival held annually in Louisville, Kentucky. The festival was founded in 2002 as a small gathering of local musicians in Tyler Park, and steadily grew into a national attraction that now includes major touring acts and an economic impact of over $20 million per year. Forecastle was selected as one of Rolling Stone’s “Coolest Festivals” and has an annual attendance of over 75,000 fans at Louisville Waterfront Park. It attracts attendees from nearly all 50 states, 2000 cities, and a dozen international countries. Past headliners include The Black Keys, Jack White, Beck, Sam Smith, Outkast, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Chris Stapleton, My Morning Jacket, Sturgill Simpson, Alabama Shakes, The Flaming Lips, The Avett Brothers, Widespread Panic and more
Forecastle took a break in 2023 for the first time in 20 years. The future of this festival is uncertain as of writing. The website https://www.forecastlefest.com use to feature the message below.
Forecastle Festival will be taking a pause in 2023. It’s incredible to see what this festival has become and how the Louisville community has grown around it over the past 20 years.
There are some things that we want to work on and improve for the future, so we’re going to take some time to strategize and determine the best path forward for the festival.
The Forecastle website now redirects to a 403 Forbidden error message. Unfortunately Forecastle is coming back to Louisville in 2024 and may be gone forever. For historical archive, check out Forecastle 2022 Lineup.
It is a new music festival in Louisville, KY on a85 acres of green space at waterfront park. It will be hosted over 2 days and feature 26 acts on two stages. Some acts include Sza, Vince Staples, James Blake, Omar Apollo, Pinkpantheress, Veeze, and of course Louisville native Jack Harlow!
Gazebo Festival is a two day event taking place over Saturday May 25 and Sunday May 26.
Hotels often sell out, are expensive, or can not accommodate your group. I recommend renting a condo out on AirBNB! Somewhere in the Highlands neighborhood is good. Both condos advertised on this website sleep up to 6 guests EACH. If you were to book both condos, you could sleep a group of 12.
For parties of 6 or less, I have had guests in previous years say they loved this Swanky 2 Level Condo. The other option directly next door with more high end finishes is The Corner Penthouse Condo.