Louisville’s Forecastle Festival coming up July 18-20 – a quick preview

If you’re a regular reader of hissing lawns, you might already have noticed that we’re branching out. The long-term plan is that at least half of the posts on this blog will have direct relevance to the Savannah music scene, but we’re hoping to cast our net wider and wider.

Anna and Petee have already collaborated on some excellent coverage of Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, Tom has posted Throwback Thursday photos of the 2012 Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, several hissing lawns contributors will be headed to Bragg Jam in Macon later this month, and I’ve shared photos from a couple of tremendous shows at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville — Jake Bugg w/ The Silver Palms and Murder By Death w/ Jaye Jayle and The Foxery.

And we’re also going to have some coverage of Forecastle Festival in Louisville.

Founded in 2002, Forecastle takes place July 18-20 at Louisville’s expansive Waterfront Park along the Ohio River. Like so many cities, Louisville has highways slicing through downtown that hurt the chance for full development of the riverfront, but good planning has transformed some formerly forlorn spaces over the last few decades.

According to this newsy piece at WDRB, Forecastle uses 15 acres at the west end of the park — a spectacular location (photo via Forecastle’s media assets):

Click here for a venue map.

Friday’s bill includes Outkast, Spoon, Twenty One Pilots, and Gary Clark Jr. Saturday is headlined by Jack White, Band of Horses, Dwight Yoakam, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Jason Isbell.

For me, the most exciting lineup is actually Sunday, July 20th, which is headlined by Beck, The Replacements, Ray LaMontagne, and Nickel Creek.

And I’m pretty excited about some of the bands that are playing daytime sets or performing on the smaller of the four stages. Click here for the lineup by day.

I love the breadth of the eclectic lineup.