Events and Attractions

Derby isn't just a horse race, or a day at the track. It's two weeks of fireworks, steamboat races, even a spelling bee - 70 events in all.

So, naturally, the rest of the year is calm, unscheduled, festival-free.

Wrong - hardly a week passes when something isn't being celebrated, from the city's ethnic heritages to the ideas that will transform its future. There are art shows that outdraw the Derby itself, barbecues and food purveyors that dish out some of the top eating in town, and a storytelling festival that draws great talkers from around the world.

Meanwhile, the permanent attractions of Louisville make up a standing invitation to enjoy life:

Cruise the Ohio on a historic sternwheeler...

gaze into the eyes of a lowland gorilla...

visit historic homes where George Rogers Clark, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Eleanor Roosevelt preceded you...

try your luck in one of the world's largest floating casinos...

walk into the drawing room from a 1608 English manor house...

plunge through the air on a world-class roller coaster.

Learn about bats, boxers, your body; the history of art, weaponry and steamboats; what it takes to win the Derby; and why Louisville came to be here in the first place.

Every day's a festival in Possibility City.