Seasonal Story Ideas
100 YEARS OF THE GREAT GATSBY
Turning 100 years old in April 2025, The Great Gatsby is considered one of the greatest works of literature ever written and may not have happened had it not been for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s time in Louisville. Stationed at Camp Taylor during World War I, a young Fitzgerald would find himself at Louisville’s Seelbach Hotel for a drink at the bar. It’s there that Fitzgerald is said to have rubbed elbows with mobsters and bootleggers, one of which ultimately inspired the character for Jay Gatsby. In fact, Louisville is mentioned seven times throughout the novel and is the birthplace of antagonist Daisy Buchannon. The Seelbach Hotel, which turns 120 years old in 2025, is written as the location of Tom & Daisy’s lavish June wedding which saw “more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before.”
CHRISTMAS TIME IN KENTUCKY
Coming for the first time to Kentucky’s largest amusement park, Christmas at Kentucky Kingdom is an $8 million investment that will bring holiday cheer to Louisville starting in late November. Highlights include over one million lights, a tree maze, and a four-story, 175-foot-long snow tubing hill retrofit into the water park’s wave pool. One hundred feet below ground you’ll find the Louisville Mega Cavern’s Lights Under Louisville, featuring the world’s only fully underground, drive through holiday light show. A self-driven experience, the underground adventure features over 6 million points of light, 900 lit characters and a laser light show. The Old Louisville Holiday Home Tour takes place in the country’s third largest historic district and allows visitors to explore Victorian-era mansions ornately decorated for the holidays. The 6-week Fête De Noël in the Paristown district offers outdoor ice skating, trackless train rides, and a Holiday Market along with special events and holiday movie screenings. Other classic Louisville traditions include the Louisville Ballet‘s annual production of the Nutcracker and Gardens Aglimmer at the Waterfront Botanical Gardens. Cap it all off with bourbon balls and a pre-batched Bourbon eggnog which can purchased on historic Whiskey Row at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience.
COMING IN 2025
A new 6-story Canopy by Hilton hotel will open just one block from Whiskey Row in early 2025. The 168-room property will feature a rooftop pool & bar, and a ground-floor eatery, Bourré Bonne Steakhouse, helmed by one of Louisville’s top restauranteurs, Kevin Grangier. A trio of outdoor projects will also come to fruition in 2025. Early next year, look for the completion of a new phase of Waterfront Park’s westward expansion along the Ohio River, which will bridge the divide between Louisville’s downtown and Portland neighborhood. Yew Dell Gardens is investing $5 million for its Castle Gardens Project which will transform the area surrounding the iconic Yew Dell Castle into a stunning collection of new gardens and water features. The Speed Art Museum is the oldest and largest art museum in Kentucky and is receiving a $22 million, three-acre makeover with a new park and sculpture garden opening late in the year. Free and open 24/7, the art park will feature 13 new world-class outdoor sculptures. Historic Churchill Downs will turn 150 years old in 2025, with the national historic landmark announcing that it will invest $90 million to upgrade the racetrack before Kentucky Derby 151. The Kentucky Derby Museum will also celebrate a milestone, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025 with a $2.3 million upgrade to The Greatest Race, the museum’s popular 360° 4K film, as well as a new Derby through the Decades fashion exhibit.
THE BOURBON BOOM IS JUST BEGINNING
Though Louisville’s distilling heritage dates back to the 1780s, 2023 marked only a decade since the opening of the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, the city’s first ticketed bourbon attraction. Since then, Louisville has undergone a spirited renaissance, seeing bourbon-themed hotels, festivals, restaurants, and more than a dozen additional distilleries and attractions open within the city limits. Louisville has seen even more action in 2024 with the openings of The Last Refuge, a new restaurant, whiskey bar, and live music venue inside a 150-year-old church led by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, Log Still Distillery’s Monk’s Road Boiler House, a supper club-inspired restaurant and tasting room on the original Whiskey Row, and the Oxmoor Bourbon Company, which offers tours and tastings at a historic farm that was once home to 5 generations of the Bullitt family. Stay tuned for two new tasting rooms coming to Whiskey Row in 2025 from Bourbon brands like Green River Distilling Co. and Pursuit Spirits.
BOURBON CITY'S BLACK HERITAGE
From Bourbon and horse racing to culinary traditions to The Greatest himself, Muhammad Ali, Louisville would not be the city it is today without the contributions of its Black community. Tours, exhibits, and experiences include the Black Heritage in Racing exhibit at the Kentucky Derby Museum which highlights the accomplishments of Black jockeys who once dominated the sport; The Ideal Bartender Experience at Evan Williams Bourbon Experience where guests will meet an actor portraying Louisville native, Tom Bullock, the first African American to pen & publish a cocktail book; and Roots 101 African American Museum, which offers a full range of exhibits from the Faces of Africa to Black to the Future. Walk in the Footsteps of Greatness of Muhammad Ali by visiting the places that majorly impacted his life and career like the Muhammad Ali Center, his boyhood home, or Cave Hill Cemetery, a 296-acre burial ground and arboretum that serves as The Champ’s final resting place.
GET A TASTE OF THE KENTUCKY DERBY
Once hailed by Magic Johnson as “the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras all rolled into one,” the Derby has become a national springtime holiday with its own distinct culture. For starters, locals roll out a unique menu from appetizers to desserts to cocktails. Start with triangle-cut Benedictine sandwiches using the curious light green cucumber spread Benedictine, invented by Louisville caterer Jennie Benedict in the late 1800s. Next, dive into a Kentucky Hot Brown, an open-faced hot turkey, bacon, cheese, and tomato sandwich invented at the century-old Brown Hotel in 1926. Add Henry Bain Sauce, a rich and tangy tomato and vinegar-based topping, to any of your meat-based dishes. The original recipe was created by Henry Bain, the maitre d’ at Louisville’s Pendennis Club, which also happens to be the birthplace of the Old Fashioned cocktail. For dessert try Derby-Pie®, the official pie of the Kentucky Derby, invented at a local Louisville inn in the 1950s. Or, try Bourbon Balls, a delicacy invented by two Kentucky ex-teachers in the 1930s. Lastly, you’ll want to wash it all down with a Mint Julep, the iconic Kentucky Derby cocktail that mixes Bourbon, sugar, water, and mint, in a signature silver julep cup.
HOW IMMIGRANTS ARE SHAPING THIS FLOURISHING FOODIE NEIGHBORHOOD
Recently named one of “The Best Food Neighborhoods in the USA” by AFAR, NuLu has become one of Louisville’s must-visit dining destinations. Yucatan born Bruce Ucán was first on the scene nearly two decades ago with his longtime staple Mayan Café. Cuban-born Fernando Martinez has done his part to brighten up the neighborhood with the addition of two successful concepts, La Bodeguita de Mima and Guacamole. Husband and wife duo Alvio and Elaisy Lapinet bring additional flavor to the city’s exploding Cuban community with the opening of Cured, while Israeli-born Noam Bilitzer just celebrated the one-year anniversary of Meesh Meesh, which focuses on Levantine-inspired cuisine. Wash it all down at Rabbit Hole Distillery, which houses the ultra-modern Bourbon brand created by Kaveh Zamanian, who is originally from Iran, but eventually moved to Kentucky after falling in love with his Louisville-born wife.
LOUISVILLE'S SPIN ON ITS DISCO HISTORY
Did you know a majority of the country’s disco balls used to be produced in Louisville? It’s said that during the height of the disco era, during the 1970s & 80s, up to 90% of the nation’s disco balls were manufactured here. Today, a former disco ball-making factory has transformed into one of the city’s newest boutique properties with the opening of the Myriad Hotel. The 65-room accommodation features a myriad of room types, a disco ball-clad lobby, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant (Paseo), and an outdoor pool. The hotel was named after the original patent for the disco ball, the myriad reflector, which was filed in 1916 in Newport, Kentucky. Today, Louisville’s disco ball heritage is on full display around town with a mirror-tiled bar front at The Lucky Penny speakeasy where you can grab a Mirror Ball cocktail, a disco ball horse spinning at Revelry Boutique made by local artist Robert Brown, and an exhibit titled “Cool Kentucky” at the Frazier History Museum featuring a disco ball from Omega National Products, which is still producing disco balls in Louisville to this day.
