By Noah Jennings
The annual Louisville rock and heavy metal music festival, Louder Than Life, is kicking off this week. This four-day-long event will start on Thursday, Sept. 18 and end on Sunday, Sept. 21.
It takes place at the Kentucky Exposition Center, located at 937 Phillips Lane.
This year, Louder Than Life will feature over 175 bands over the course of four days. Among them are Slayer, Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me The Horizon, and Deftones. For Slayer, this will be a reunion gig for the band. They play on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. More information about gig times can be found at the event’s website.
Louder Than Life will also be expanding its site, with one of the changes adding a seventh stage. Several artists are being introduced to the lineup along with the new stage, including XweaponX, Haywire 617, Silly Goose, Unearth and more.
Chamie McCurry, the general manager at Danny Wimmer Presents, commented in an interview with the Courier Journal about their site expansion, saying that they have doubled the space, allowing them to implement bigger stages, bigger video screens and more merchandise with more accommodations and activations.
One of the biggest attractions for Louder Than Life this year will be Kentucky Kingdom. The amusement park is partnering with the music festival, and all available rides will be free to all passholders from 2-9 p.m., except for the Big Wheel, which stays open until 10 p.m.
Kentucky Kingdom also partnered with the music festival Bourbon and Beyond, which kicked off Thursday, Sept. 11. Louder Than Life will have an additional stage located inside the amusement park.
Both Bourbon and Beyond and Louder Than Life are expected to bring in fans from all over the world, which will hopefully bring in money for Louisville.
With both music festivals taking place one after the other, it helps keep businesses located near the Expo Center booming for two weeks. According to WDRB, Hotels have seen a drastic increase in bookings, many nearing 90% capacity.
In a WDRB interview, Terry Leach, a longtime employee at Mirage Mediterranean Restaurant, said that the events attract many new and familiar customers.
In the same interview, Greg Mann, general manager of the Crowne Plaza Louisville Airport, said that both music festivals make “September a wonderful month.”
Parking at the Expo Center costs $40 daily, which may be costly since Louder Than Life will be four days long. According to Spectrum News 1, The Transit Authority of River City is offering an alternative solution to this by partnering with the Parking Authority of River City to offer more affordable rides to the Expo Center.
Festivalgoers can park downtown at the PARC garage, located at 115 W. Jefferson Street, for $15. It includes round-trip services provided by TARC. More information can be found at TARC’s website or by calling 502-585-1234
Louder Than Life is providing shuttle passes to those who want to skip out on parking. It costs $25 each for individual days, with weekend passes costing $100 each.
Photo courtesy, Louder Than Life
