List of attractions and events in Louisville, Kentucky

Statues of fancifully painted horses can currently be seen around Louisville. A part of the Gallopalooza art exhibition, these horses honor past winners of the Kentucky Derby.

This is a list of notable visitor attractions and annual events in the Louisville metropolitan area.

Annual festivals and other events

View of the Forecastle Festival on the Belvedere

• 100 Years on the Ohio River, historical re-enactment at Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing, commemorating the first hundred years of Louisville's history, from its founding through the Civil War (years 1765 through 1865), held in September
• Abbey Road on the River, a salute to The Beatles with many bands, held on Memorial Day weekend
• Bluegrass Balloon Festival, held in September
• Corn Island Storytelling Festival, held in September
• Danger Run, from the end of September through the end of October
• Farmington Harvest Festival, held the second Sunday in October at Farmington Historic Plantation
• Forecastle Festival, a co-mingling of music, art and activism, held in July
• Garvin Gate Blues Festival, held in Old Louisville in October
• Ghosts of Old Louisville Tour, guided ghost tours of Old Louisville, "America's Most Haunted Neighborhood"
• Highland Renaissance Festival Set back in time, The Highland Renaissance Festival offers all day Entertainment including LIVE Jousting, Live Music, Hand Powered Rides, Games of Skill, Dancing, Juggling, Sword Swallowing, Mus Show and more, as well as Merchants, Artisans, Period Food & Drink, including your favorite Ale.
• Humana Festival of New American Plays, held in the Spring
• Jeffersontown Gaslight Festival (Jeffersontown), held in September
• Kentucky Art Car Weekend, held in August
• Kentucky Bourbon Festival (Bardstown)
• Kentucky Derby Festival, Kentucky's largest single annual event; includes Thunder Over Louisville, Great Steamboat Race, Pegasus Parade and the Marathon/miniMarathon, and is held for two weeks from late April through early May
• Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, commonly called Shakespeare in the Park; held in the Summer
• Kentucky State Fair, annual 10-day event held in August at the Kentucky Exposition Center; includes the "World's Championship Horse Show". Archived from the original on 2007-11-30. 
• Kentuckiana Pride Festival, series of events in June in support of LGBT pride and rights
• Lebowski Fest
• Louisville Zombie Attack, where thousands of locals dressed as zombies walk down Bardstown Road to a set location, held every year on August 29 at 8:29 p.m.
• National Quartet Convention
• North American International Livestock Exposition, held in November
• Oktoberfest/Oktoberfeast Louisville, held in October
• Spirit Ball, a Victorian-inspired masquerade ball held annually the Saturday before Halloween at the Conrad-Caldwell House on St. James Court
• St. James Court Art Show, one of the top-ranked shows of its kind in the country; held in Old Louisville the first weekend of October
• St. Joseph Orphans Picnic, held the second Saturday in August
• Starlight Strawberry Festival (Starlight, Indiana), held during Memorial Day weekend
• WHAS Crusade for Children, fundraiser held over the first weekend in June
• The World's Largest Halloween Party, Louisville Zoo, held 14 nights in October.

Distinctive locales

The Conrad-Caldwell House at St James Court and Magnolia Avenue in Old Louisville

• Old Louisville, the third largest historic preservation district in the U.S., which features:
  • the highest number of buildings of Victorian architecture in a U.S. neighborhood
  • Louisville's Central Park
  • St. James Court, famous for the annual St. James Court Art Show.
• The Highlands area, which features:
  • Distinctive shops, restaurants and nightlife along Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue
  • Cherokee Triangle and Original Highlands historic neighborhoods
• The West Main District of downtown, including "Museum Row" and featuring some of the oldest structures in the city
• Corydon Historic District
• Old Jeffersonville Historic District
• Frankfort Avenue corridor, including the Clifton and Crescent Hill neighborhoods — another area with distinctive shops and restaurants
• East Market District, featuring a row of art galleries, prominently featured in the monthly First Friday Trolley Hop
• Kentucky Renaissance Fair, LLC www.kyrenfaire.com - Multiple Events throughout the year, including the Annual Highland Renaissance Festival ever June and July, Annual Celtic Festival & Highland Games every September and Annual Dickens Christmas Festival the first two weekends of December.

Historic properties

See also: History of Louisville, Kentucky

The Belle of Louisville still serves as the symbol of Louisville. She will celebrate her 100th birthday in 2014.

• Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral (Bardstown) — first Roman Catholic cathedral west of the Appalachian Mountains
• Belle of Louisville, the oldest Mississippi-style steamboat in operation on the inland waterways of the U.S. (Built 1914-1915 in Pittsburgh for service in Memphis as the Idlewild, renamed Avalon in 1948, purchased by Jefferson County and renamed Belle of Louisville in 1962.)
• Bray Place, the land and 1796 home, now called the Bashford Manor Bed and Breakfast, one of the oldest houses in Kentucky.
• The Brennan House
• Brown Hotel, where the Hot Brown was invented.
• Cathedral of the Assumption
• Colgate Clock (Clarksville, Indiana), the second largest clock in the world.
• Colonial Gardens, a local landmark in the Kenwood Hill neighborhood.
• Conrad-Caldwell House
• Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site (New Albany, Indiana), most noted for its annual haunted house located in the mansion's carriage barn.
• Farmington Historic Plantation, including the Thomas Jefferson-designed home of the Speed family, visited by Abraham Lincoln.
• The Filson Historical Society, a historical society and research library housed in the Ferguson Mansion, a Beaux-Arts style mansion built in 1906.
• Fort Duffield, a Civil War fort.
• Fort Knox, including the U.S. Bullion Depository and General George Patton Museum (Bullitt, Hardin and Meade Counties)
• Fort Nelson Park, located in the same spot as the second on-shore fort in Kentucky.
• Galt House, the famous hotel where Civil War generals planned campaigns, including William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea.
• Historic Locust Grove farm, home of George Rogers Clark and site of the homecoming of Lewis and Clark.
• Little Loomhouse
• Louisville Stoneware, making pottery since 1815.
• My Old Kentucky Home State Park (Bardstown), featuring the Federal Hill mansion (inspiration for Stephen Foster's My Old Kentucky Home) and Stephen Foster - The Musical
• Peterson-Dumesnil House
• Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing
• Scribner House (New Albany, Indiana)
• Seelbach Hotel, the famous hotel written about by F. Scott Fitzgerald and frequently visited by Al Capone.
• Spalding Hall (Bardstown)
• Thomas Edison House
• Union Station
• United States Marine Hospital of Louisville
• Vogue Theater, a movie theater in St. Matthews that closed in 1998, known for showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show for 25 years. Its sign is being refurbished as a historical landmark.
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium
• Whitehall House & Gardens
• Whitney Young Birthplace and Museum

Museums, galleries and interpretive centers

A giant baseball bat adorns the outside of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville.

Main article: Museums of Louisville, Kentucky

This list may contain repeats from other sections so that a complete list of Louisville area museums can be shown in one spot.

Art

• 21c Museum Hotel
• Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
• Louisville Glassworks
• Speed Art Museum — currently closed for rebuilding; planned reopening in fall 2015

Regional history

See also: History of Louisville, Kentucky and History of Kentucky

• Bullitt County History Museum (Shepherdsville)
• Carnegie Center for Art & History (New Albany, Indiana)
• Corydon Capitol State Historic Site (Corydon, Indiana)
• Falls of the Ohio State Park interpretive center, a museum covering the natural history related to findings in the nearby exposed Devonian fossil beds as well as the human history of the Louisville area.

• The Filson Historical Society — features a museum and extensive historical collections
• Henry County History Center & Museum (New Castle)
• Historic Locust Grove Visitors Center, which includes a museum
• Historic Middletown Museum
• Howard Steamboat Museum (Jeffersonville, Indiana)
• Jeffersontown Historical Museum
• Jim Beam Outpost (Clermont)

Entrance to the Louisville Science Center

• Kentucky Derby Museum
• Kentucky Railway Museum (New Haven)
• Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
• My Old Kentucky Home State Park (Bardstown)
• Oldham County History Center (La Grange)
• Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey (Bardstown)
• Portland Museum
• Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing Visitors Center, which includes a museum
• Thomas Edison House
• Whitney Young Birthplace and Museum

More regional historical collections can be found at the Louisville Free Public Library and the University of Louisville.

U.S. and world history

Front facade of the Frazier International History Museum

• Callahan Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind
• Civil War Museum (Bardstown), including the Civil War Museum of the Western Theater, Pioneer Village, Women's Civil War Museum, War Memorial of Mid America and the Wildlife Museum
• Frazier History Museum — features war weaponry and related historical artifacts, especially focusing on British and U.S. conflicts
• Joseph A. Callaway Archaeological Museum at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• John Hay Center
• National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution — features a historical museum and a genealogical collection
• Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor (Fort Knox)

Other subjects

• Louisville Clock, at Theatre Square
• Louisville Science Center — hands-on science museum featuring an IMAX theater
• Muhammad Ali Center
• Thomas Merton Center

Parks and other outdoor attractions

See also: City of Parks and List of parks in Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville Waterfront Park exhibits rolling hills, spacious lawns and walking paths on Louisville's waterfront in the downtown area

Louisville is home to many spacious city parks, several designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, as well as forested areas, trails and other outdoor attractions; distinctive examples include:

• Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve
• Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest (Bullitt County)
• Blackacre Nature Preserve and Historic Homestead
• Bridges to the Past (Radcliff)
• Camp Carlson (Fort Knox)
• Cave Hill Cemetery
• Central Park
• Cherokee Park
• E. P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park
• Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area (Clarksville, Indiana), which includes Falls of the Ohio State Park and features the oldest exposed Devonian fossil beds in the United States
• Huber Orchard and Winery (Starlight, Indiana)
• Iroquois Park — features a locally popular amphitheater
• Jefferson Memorial Forest, in southwest Louisville, the largest municipal urban forest in the United States
• Levee Bike Trail
• Louisville Waterfront Park — features annual Thunder Over Louisville fireworks and air show during the Kentucky Derby Festival
• Louisville Zoo
• Louisville Mega Cavern
• Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area (Meade County)
• Patriots Peace Memorial
• Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere, adjacent to Downtown Louisville and Louisville's wharf
• Riverwalk Trail
• Seneca Park
• Shawnee Park
• Squire Boone Caverns (Mauckport, Indiana)
• Tioga Falls Hiking Trail (Radcliff)
• Waverly Park — includes the 9-hole Bobby Nichols Golf Course
• Zachary Taylor National Cemetery

Shows and performing arts

See also: Performing arts in Louisville, Kentucky, Theatres of Louisville and Theater in Kentucky

The Kentucky Center in Downtown Louisville

This list may contain repeats from other sections so that a complete list of Louisville area shows and performing arts venues and events can be shown in one spot.

• Actors Theatre, producing the Humana Festival of New American Plays, amongst many other productions
• Baxter Avenue Theatres, with a monthly audience participation showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Elizabeth, Indiana)
• Derby Dinner Playhouse (Clarksville, Indiana)
• Fourth Street Live!, a downtown entertainment and shopping complex
• Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium (University of Louisville)
• IMAX theaters at the Louisville Science Center and Showcase Stonybrook Cinemas
• The Kentucky Center
• Kentucky Shakespeare Festival
• The Kentucky Theater
• Louisville Chorus
• The Louisville Palace
• Music Theatre Louisville

Sports-related attractions and venues

See also: Sports in Louisville, Kentucky

The Muhammad Ali Center

• Churchill Downs thoroughbred racetrack and the Kentucky Derby Museum
• Freedom Hall
• KFC Yum! Center
• Knob Creek Gun Range (in Bullitt County near West Point), famous for its twice-yearly machine gun shoot
• Lindsey Golf Course (Fort Knox)
• Louisville Extreme Park
• Louisville Slugger Field, baseball stadium that is home to the Louisville Bats
• Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
• Muhammad Ali Center
• Papa John's Cardinal Stadium
• Valhalla Golf Club, designed by professional golfer Jack Nicklaus

External links

• 36 Hours in Louisville, Ky.—NY Times March 31, 2011
• Greater Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau
• LouisvilleHotBytes restaurant reviews
• Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy