For a short time every year, the Kentucky Derby transforms Louisville into an internationally relevant city. Throughout most of the year it’s simply a nice town full of disappointing basketball, eclectic restaurants, and delicious bourbon, but in the weeks leading up to the Derby, the city tends to become a different animal. It’s hard to imagine that a city could be any more transformed on an annual basis by a sporting event.
Thunder Over Louisville: The Greatest Sports Celebration That Nobody Knows About
↵Thunder Over Louisville, which is underway as we speak, is an annual event in which the better part of a million (!) people head downtown, watch an air show, and wait for the largest annual fireworks display on the continent.
↵First, the air show. My feelings toward the military are hopelessly complicated for reasons I won’t get into, but when you sit on the waterfront, watch an F-22 crawl above you at 300 feet, then see it suddenly rocket vertically in the air until it drops out of your vision, you will freak out. It’s impossible to deny its magnificence.
↵The fireworks display, though, is the reason most people watch it. It’s huge. Like, “it frightens dogs in back yards 15 miles away” huge. For everyone not fortunate enough to see it first-hand, here’s the grand finale.
↵
↵By the way, it is completely acceptable to enjoy this event far more than the Derby itself. I certainly do.
See More:
