It’s that time of year again. The first week of June. The year is halfway over, school is out (well it’s been out for me for about 25 years, but who’s counting?), the weather is hot and like clockwork, Danny Wimmer Presents just dropped the lineup for the 5th installment of the Louder Than Life festival. What is Louder Than Life you ask?
Louder Than Life is a new(er) music festival which follows in the footsteps of its festival brethren Chicago Open Air, Monster Energy Rock Allegiance, Rock On The Range, Northern Invasion, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome To Rockville and Monster Energy Aftershock. All of these festivals are produced and brought to you by Danny Wimmer Presents.
Of all the festivals listed, I am more than a little biased when I say that Louder Than Life is my top choice. Why? Because it is hosted in my city, Louisville, Kentucky. I have been going to concerts here since the age of 12 and I can tell you that Louisville was never considered a top choice for big tour stops. At least not for hard rock and metal shows. Sure, we always had tours roll through, but those tours were usually the 2nd or 3rd leg run and the bands/artists were pretty much over whatever album they were touring at the time or each other for that matter and always just seemed ready to “hit it and quit it” so to speak.
Regardless, that all changed in the summer of 2014 with the festival’s debut. Louder Than Life, which is billed as a “music, whiskey and gourmet man food festival” returns this year as a 3 day festival on September 28, 29 and 30th.
Besides the music which we will cover in a minute, the festival once again brings back all the food and drink you could want. Food vendors from all over the country will be ready to serve any kind of food you can think of from different kinds of crazy pizza’s, burgers, burritos and my favorite from the previous years, fried turkey legs the size of a grown man’s calf. There are way more food vendors slinging more types of food than I can name so I’ll give you this link and you can go ahead and plan your diet (or lack thereof) for the weekend.
Also returning this year is the F.Y.E. Fan Experience where you will be able to meet some of your favorite bands playing the festival while grabbing a photo and an autograph. The Jack Daniels Experience returns as well, What would a festival without be without it?
One of my favorite extra “to do’s” is The Music Experience tent. This tent is packed with guitars, drums, basses and pretty much everything you could imagine. Swing in and play whatever you want, buy some new gear or even just hang out and see what artists pop in. You never know who you will see in there.
Now let’s get to business. This years lineup. I do not even know where to start with this one. Louder Than Life 2018 has the best lineup in the festival’s history, by far. I am not really sure how they will top this one. This year’s headliners include Avenged Sevenfold on Friday, Godsmack on Saturday and Nine Inch Nails on Sunday. Avenged and Godsmack have both made appearances in the festival’s history but this marks a first for Nine Inch Nails. Other big names on the list include Limp Bizkit, Slash ft. Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Deftones, Clutch, Ice Cube, Billy Idol, Primus, Suicidal Tendencies, Ice T’s Body Count. I think I basically just typed out everyone that I am more than stoked to see, so please check out the full lineup…
Friday, September 28
Avenged Sevenfold
Limp Bizkit
Breaking Benjamin
Slash
Seether
Black Stone Cherry
Skillet
Underoath
Suicidal Tendencies
Red Sun Rising
Tremonti
Bad Wolves
Turnstile
Jelly Roll
Hyro The HeroBadflower
Islander
True Villains
Saturday, September 29
Godsmack
Five Finger Death Punch
Shinedown
Bush
Bullet For My Valentine
HellyeahBody Count
Pop Evil
Sevendust
GWAR
Dance Gavin Dance
From Ashes To New
Sick Puppies
Cane Hill
Bad Omens
Blacktop Mojo
Awake At Last
Stone Broken
The Jacks
Sunday, September 30
Nine Inch Nails
Deftones
Ice Cube
Primus
Billy Idol
Action Bronson
Clutch
Asking Alexandria
Yelawolf
The Sword
Glassjaw
The Fever 333
Monster Magnet
Spirit Animal
The Dose
The Breton Sound
The last weekend in September is going to be a monster. If you think Louisville is basically just the home of the Kentucky Derby and maybe some bourbon, make the trip and let this city and festival make you rethink that. You’ll be back for 2019.
Tickets go on sale June 8th. Visit www.louderthanlifefestival.com for more info or to buy tickets, check V.I.P options or get hotel or camping info. You can even learn what you can do to earn a free ticket. The festival offers a lay-a-way option to help ease the hit to your wallet. That’s right, why blow your wad all at once at the beginning of the summer if you don’t have to? Visit that website, do what you gotta do and we’ll see you in September.
