5 Favorite Moments at Forecastle Music Festival
Louisville hosted its 18th annual Forecastle Festival this past weekend and it was wildly successful. No surprise there, of course. Forecastle has always been a favorite among festival goers based on the ability to highlight local acts along with draw further attention to national ones, promote all the bourbon (really, all of it) and bring people together.
The Clothing Statements
People watching at festivals has always been one of my favorite things. The various outfits showcased this year were no exception. There were vintage shirts of all calibers from “I want my MTV to old KFC advertisements, shirts/hats with clever sayings such as “make cornbread, not war” or my favorite: the taco hat. Cheers buddy.
Atmosphere
The vibe surrounding Forecastle was very chill. There were various stages that while walking from act to act, you could run into people you see all the time to people you haven’t seen in years. Feeling so at home and so at ease at a festival of this size is a pretty important deal.
NELLY
I never thought that at 27 years old, I would be standing in a crowd of my peers singing along with Nelly. I feel like no matter what musical genre path (if any) you took later in life, your 13-year-old self still knows every single song. I also never thought that he would be so humble and genuinely thankful for all the support, not only on Saturday but over the years in general.
WFPK Port Stage
A grossly underrated and undermentioned part of Forecastle has been the WFPK stage in Kentucky Landing. WFPK is Louisville’s Home for independent and local music. They used their stage to have local acts like Bendigo Fletcher and Carly Johnson along with non-local acts (Israel Nash, The Artisanals) perform for an always large and chill crowd, they were drawing for tickets for next year’s festival and using every resource to inform the crowd about music related events coming up in Louisville. If you’d like to contribute to WFPK and keep their vibe going, you can do so here: https://tinyurl.com/y277sazh
Tyler Childers and the Foodstamps are Home
Tyler Childers came home to Kentucky Sunday night with a gritty 75-minute set for the fans gathered around the Mast Stage. He opened with fan-favorite “Whitehouse Road” and set the tone for a barn burning set list. Highlights included an absolute emotional version of “Creeker” followed by a slower tempo version of “Peace of Mind” which brought on the question of if it will be slowed down on the new album, due out in August. “Peace of Mind” was followed by an absolute jamming version of “Tulsa Turnaround” (nods to Goose Creek Symphony & Kenny Rogers). The band then dove directly into “Redneck Romeo” and “The West Virginia Song”, “Feathered Indians”. Two (and 1/8) more covers were sprinkled into the set list, “Long Long Time to get Old” made famous by Great Speckled Bird and of course, Tyler gifted us with a snippet of his favorite Miley Cyrus song “Wrecking Ball” before closing the set with “Trudy”, a gift to everyone from Charlie Daniels.
I feel like the biggest highlight of their set was the guys showcasing their friends. The band was sporting merchandise for Luna and the Mountain Jets, Blank Range, The Local Honeys and Town Mountain. What great friends. I can’t wait to see what big surprises the rest of this year has in store for Tyler Childers and the Foodstamps.
Jessica Blankenship is the owner and founder of Kentucky Country Music website with over 20 years experience in music journalism, concert planning, photography, and promotion. Jessica is a Kentucky Colonel and alumni of the 2019 Leadership Kentucky BRIGHT Class and a recipient of the Laurel County’s Ten Under 40 Award. Listen to her each week on WFKY on Friday mornings for the Nashville News Roundup.