Every year, Forecastle delivers a truly amazing festival. A beautiful location, an awesome lineup, made even better by good company. Held right on the beautiful Louisville riverfront, this is Forecastle’s 16th year wowing audiences.

Every year is a little different, which is part of what I love about Forecastle. This year, one of the biggest changes was the new and improved Party Cove. It’s back, and better than ever. This year they removed the Port Stage to make room for a charming little ferris wheel and swinging ship. While they had to do a little rearranging to fit them in, they fit perfectly. They did, however, add a new local stage to the Kentucky Landing area, and did way more programming on the Party Cove stage this year. So all in all, five stages total this year!
This year it was like the the lineup was tailored just for me. Most of the bands I was excited to see, I have seen before: Modest Mouse, The War on Drugs, Lucero, Father John Misty, Jason Isbell, Jenny Lewis. While some people may view that as a negative, I am one of those people who will see my favorite bands over and over again. Plus, I’ve only seen ONE of those artists play a festival set before, and festival sets are always a different energy.

The artists this year were decorated with Grammy’s. Chris Stapleton, Arcade Fire, Jason Isbell, Father John Misty, The War on Drugs, and T Pain all have that treasured golden gramophone, or a few. But despite their sound issues, Modest Mouse was one of my favorite acts during the weekend. Every song took me back to a different point in my life. No one really cared about the sound issues, it wasn’t about the music, it never really is with Modest Mouse – it’s about the feeling you get when you hear it.
My only regret was I wish I could have seen more of Courtney Barnett’s set. But, there was a lot of overlap this year, so we could only see bits and pieces of each band. I think all the overlap this year was due to the removal of the Port Stage. While I appreciate the local stage, it did crowd the rest of the schedule a bit.

This was one of the hottest Forecastle’s on record, lingering in the mid 90s all weekend. Forecastle is always prepared though, it IS Kentucky in July after all. Free water stations, frozen bandanas, and of course, the wonderfully air-conditioned Bourbon Lodge. The Bourbon Lodge is worth the money every year. This year, they added some fun new additions to it – like the speakeasy-style Four Roses Lounge. There was no clear signage for the entrance, which was located behind the Gonzo Bar. Instead there was a small rubber lizard outside the door, and signs around the festival saying “follow the lizard” and other cryptic clues. This was one of our favorite spots all weekend. We kept calling it the ‘blast freezer’ all weekend, because it was always a refreshing 65. Perfect for a quick cool down.

I fall more in love with Louisville every time I visit. The architecture, the food, the bourbon, and I absolutely adore a walkable city. We stayed at the beautiful Brown Hotel, where we were able to walk to and from the festival with ease. Not to mention, Louisville throws one hell of a music festival. I can already confidently say we will be there next year.
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This sounds like soooo much fun!!
I have not experienced enough music festivals, but I can feel your enthusiasm through your words and it makes me want to do more things like this…I mean, especially if I can get access to the ‘blast freezer!” 😉
It looks like you had a great time! I’d never heard of this festival before, but it sounds like one I should remember :).
We had a blast!
This sounds so fun! I’ve never been to a music festival but it looks like quite the experience. Hopefully I’ll get to go to one at some point.
This is a great starter festival if you’ve never been!
Such a diverse lineup – glad you enjoyed! Had never heard of this festival before this.
I’ve never been to a festival before, but lately I’ve been thinking I should give one a go. Seems like you had a great time, I can just imagine how fun the atmosphere would have been.
I haven’t heard of this music festival before, but it sounds like a great one to go to. I also like that they do a lot of overlap cuz I like checking out as much as I can 🙂
It’s one of our favorites <3
This sounds like so much fun! This is my first time learning about this festival. Thanks for expanding my festival palette!
This seems to be lot fun, I never knew about this one. But you have made me interested in attending such festivals.
Definitely worth checking out! We love it!
Beautiful article. i can totally feel the vibe of the music festival though I have never been to one.
Thank you!
Attending good festival in summer is one of my favorite things to do. Have never heard of this one though, but will check it out for sure. Thanks for sharing about it
It’s one of our favorites! Definitely worth checking out!