Made my way to Louisville Kentucy over the weekend to watch Thunder Over Louisville. Thunder Over Louisville, the annual kickoff event of the Kentucky Derby Festival, is an airshow and fireworks display held in late April in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the largest annual fireworks display in North America. Thunder lasts throughout the day, and the fireworks display last for around half an hour, along with a synchronized soundtrack through PA and radio. An average of 625,000 people have attended each year since 1997, lining the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville, and across the river in Jeffersonville and Clarksville, Indiana. Some also watch from the river on boats, docked in positions auctioned off for charity. Eight 400-foot barges launch the fireworks, provided by Zambelli Fireworks Internationale, from both sides of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge (Second Street Bridge), and more fireworks are launched from the bridge itself.
The estimated attendance at Thunder is usually more than quintuple that of the main attraction, the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs. This year more than 700,00 people showed up. I'm glad I was stashed away on the 23rd floor of the Gult House. What a view - check out all the photos in proofs and also in Flicker -
