Forecastle Festival in Louisville Kentucky

Today, I’d like to welcome you to Kentucky! In a fun twist of fate, I was able to win tickets from Festival Baby to head south to the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

So we packed up and went on our merry way.

But, the forecast for Forecastle was not looking great.

We carried along regardless, driving the short distance (nine hours from NY) through the rain, enjoying all the light whimsical signs along the way.

Doesn’t it make you want to visit America?

But these are simply to be giggled at and promptly ignored.

Finally, after hours of driving we were nearly there.

The city of Louisville is actually pretty interesting. There’s a plethora of hotels, museums and restaurants. You’re not left for too long without something to do.

But we didn’t have massive amounts of time to go exploring around the city. We were anxious to get over to the festival grounds.

Located along the waterfront near the bridges and underpasses, Forecastle Fest simply pops up in the city taking over for the weekend.

A few fun shots from my Instagram…

We decided to embrace our festival hipster side with PBR.

And this was the main stage, where everyone was waiting for the first night’s headliner… Outkast.

We had a bit of time to kill, so we got ourselves well acquainted with the festival grounds. By this I mean we looked at all the food stalls and ate as much as possible before the show.

Drink options are in abundance too, obviously. But Moonshine from a mason jar is as Pinterest worthy as it gets.

Finally, Outkast were on!

And the skies opened up on the crowd. Luckily, I had my trusty rain jacket.

We danced, sang and rapped our way through their set. It was incredible. Unfortunately, because of the rain, I kept my camera/phone stowed away.

But isn’t it kind of great to let go and live in the moment sometimes without worrying about a photo?

We had a fantastic first night at the festival. So we enjoyed a lazy morning brunch before heading out the following day. Again, the skies definitely looked ominous.

So when we got to the Forecastle grounds, we immediately headed to the Bourbon Tent, because, well, when in Louisville.

The tent was absolutely decked out. There was a mixology station in the middle and loads of bourbon vendors surrounding the perimeter.

I was particularly drawn to the Four Roses bourbon stand, for obvious reasons.

Pretty things.

The tent was decorated beautifully, definitely playing up the Kentucky Derby vibes.

We took our bourbons to the mixology station, because I definitely can’t handle straight up bourbon. Mine was mixed with ginger ale. Joe had coke.

We drank up and then made our way back outside…

…where we danced a bit to some raving techno music (obv, I am a music genre expert). And had our photo taken by some fellow dancers.

After all the drinking and dancing, it was time for some grub.

A good old BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

It was deceivingly SPICY!

So we got some water bottles and lounged around for a bit in the sun that came out for a few hours.

With the excitement of the sunshine, we ventured around to the other stages, checking out the smaller, lesser known bands and taking silly selfies.

Ummm, yeah, we’re definitely a little weird.

We finally wandered back to the main stage to catch Band of Horses ready to play for a buzzing crowd.

And later that night we rocked out with Jack White.

The crowd was absolutely loving every minute. It was a phenomenal atmosphere.

We had tickets for the third day of Forecastle, but unfortunately with our nine hour drive home and work the next day, we had to head back that Sunday morning.

Still, it was an amazing two days and I was thrilled that we were able to go to Forecastle Festival. It’s definitely a lesser known of the festivals, but it’s on the up and up, especially with headliners like Outkast, Jack White and Beck (so disappointed we missed that show).

So, what festivals have you lot been to this summer?

xo Kelly