Forecastle Festival

Forecastle Festival
Forecastle Festival in 2009
Genre	Variety
Location(s)	Louisville Waterfront Park Louisville, Kentucky
Years active	2002–2019, 2022
Founded by	JK McKnight
Website	forecastlefest.com

The Forecastle Festival (pronounced "fore-castle") is a three-day music, art, and activism festival held annually in Louisville, Kentucky. The festival was founded in 2002 as a small gathering of local musicians in Tyler Park, and steadily grew into a national attraction that now includes major touring acts and an economic impact of over $20 million per year.^[1] Forecastle was selected as one of Rolling Stone's "Coolest Festivals"^[2] and has an annual attendance of over 75,000 fans at Louisville Waterfront Park. It attracts attendees from nearly all 50 states, 2000 cities, and a dozen international countries. Past headliners include the Black Keys, Jack White, Jack Harlow, Beck, Outkast, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator, Sam Smith, My Morning Jacket, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Alabama Shakes, the Flaming Lips, the Avett Brothers, Widespread Panic, Cage the Elephant and many more.^[3]

The 2022 lineup featured Jack Harlow, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator, Phoebe Bridges, Porter Robinson, Rufus Du Sol and many more. It drew a record attendance of more than 75,000 to Louisville's Waterfront Park.^[4] However, despite the attendance, Forecastle would elect to "take a pause" for 2023 with no announcement set for 2024 as of yet.^[5]

Pre-pandemic, the 2019 line-up (July 12–14) featured the Killers, high-energy folk rockers, the Avett Brothers and 2019 Grammy-winning hip-hop, funk and soul performers Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals.^[6]