Forecastle Festival 2019 // Louisville, KY 7.12-7.14

Forecastle Festival

Waterfront Park

Louisville, KY

July 12th-14th

Photos and words by Emily May

Summertime is an exciting time of year for many people, but for music lovers it means festival season.  With a variety of festivals scattered across the US, one that more and more people flock to every year is Forecastle Festival.  Founded by JK McKnight in 2002, what was once a small, community event has blossomed into one of the nations most anticipated summer festivals.  With tens of thousands of music lovers descending upon our city each July, the city’s 85-acre Waterfront Park makes the perfect site.  Once inside the festival grounds, there were plenty of food, drink, merchandise and bourbon vendors to visit, with a great selection of options to choose from.  This year boasted a fantastic line up that was spread out each day across 4 different stages- The Boom Stage, The Port Stage, The Ocean Stage and The Mast Stage.  With plenty of genres to please all music lovers, there were acts ranging from Spazz Cardigan, Caamp, Israel Nash, The Midnight, Penny & Sparrow and Mt. Joy to Yungblud, Lucius, CHVRCHES, Chromeo, Judah & The Lion and Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals.  Those that really wanted to let loose could visit the party cove, which was at the outer edge of the grounds in a hilly and shaded area and featured indie electronic, rap and DJ acts.  Near the Party Cove and down by the water was a large Ferris Wheel that festival goers could take rides of for a fantastic view of the city!  For those who wanted to continue the fun after hours, there were plenty of late night shows around town to enjoy each night after the festival was over.  This year featured a DJ set by Chromeo, a performance by Moon Taxi and various other late night shows to enjoy!

One thing that can be said about this summer is that it has been brutally hot, with this weekend being no exception.  With temperatures well into the upper 90s to low 100s (with the heat index), water filling stations were set up on site, as well as plenty of shaded areas to get a bit of relief.  Security was quick to pass out water to those in the crowd who needed it who were waiting for their favorite acts to start their set and EMTs were on site to aid those who suffered from dehydration and heat exhaustion throughout the weekend.  Luckily, I did not witness too many of such occurrences!

One of my favorite things about festivals is the fashion, or as many like to call it, festival-wear.  Forecastle is a great environment for people-watching with plenty of glitter, head wraps, short shorts, crop/bikini tops, flowing skirts, and lots of fringe!  Although many people attend for the bands, many also enjoy going to show off their fun festival outfits!  Between the fashion, music, food and various vendors, Forecastle Festival is always a fun weekend to experience.  It’s one of the weekends I look forward to every year and am sure that many others do the same!

DAY 1 PHOTOSFRIDAY, JULY 12TH: Spazz Cardigan, The Artisinals, The Band Camino, Hop Along, The Midnight, Lucius, Cold War Kids, Chromeo, Portugal. The Man, Judah & The Lion and Jungle

DAY 2 PHOTOS-SATURDAY, JULY 13TH: Bblasian, Penny and Sparrow, PJ Morton, H.A.R.D., The Marias, Caamp, Smino, Nightly, Chelsea Cutler, Cautious Clay, Moon Taxi, Israel Nash, Big Wild, Nelly, Maggie Rogers, Playboi Carti, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals

DAY 3 PHOTOS-SUNDAY, JULY 14TH: Evan Giia, Sunflower Bean, Bendigo Fletcher, Yungblud, Mt. Joy, Johnnyswim, Big Freedia, Dawes, Ruen Brothers, Whethen, Andrew Bird, Tyler Childers, BOA, CHVRCHES and The Avett Brothers

 

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