Louder Than Life is a Rock Music Festival hosted in Louisville, Kentucky every year. Joel got the chance to attend and give a full review of the experience!
Photo by Steve Thrasher & Danny Wimmer Presents.
Louder Than Life 2022 is officially over. Most festival goers have gotten home, but is it worth the trip and expense to go to the largest rock festival in America?
When I heard there was an outdoor festival paying homage to bourbon and rock n’ roll, they had my interest. I made the trip down to Louisville from Columbus to see what all the fuss was about.
Table of Contents
Travel, Lodging, and Parking at Louder Than Life
Home for the weekend was Downtown Louisville, which is about 4 miles from the festival grounds. Louisville has many hotels near the festival grounds as well as in the downtown area. Make sure to book your room early as pricing and availability can be a bit shocking as the festival nears. If you wait to book a place to stay and aren’t camping, you could be in for a surprise.
I elected to use a ride share service for both arriving and departing the festival each day. You are also able to drive your own vehicle and pay for parking. Although, the lines and traffic for parking lots can get fairly long once the afternoon hits as there are a lot of people all trying to get to the same area of Louisville.
I would definitely recommend using a ride share as your method of arrival if you are staying out of walking distance to the grounds. They are able to drop you off at the gate 1 area and you will only have a short walk to the entrance.
The entrance process was as smooth as can be expected. The general admission entrance had a decent crowd during the early afternoons. The VIP and Camping entrance was generally a no wait situation. Make sure to review what is allowed and not allowed and entering will be a breeze. Empty any metal objects into a bowl, walk through the metal detector, get your items back, then scan your festival wristband and you are in for the day.
Don’t forget you’re allowed a sealed or empty plastic water bottle which you can refill throughout the day. Your wristband will stay on you for the entirety of the festival, making it so that there are no tickets to be lost. One thing to note, is that there is no re-entry unless you are camping on the festival grounds.
Photo by Joel Lewis Photo
Experiences at Louder Than Life
Once inside, you have plenty of choices on what to do first. The festival grounds are filled with experiences to enjoy. You can relax in one of the many bourbon experience tents while enjoying amazing bourbon and cocktails, or elect to go straight to see your favorite band on one of the 6 stages. When you need a b break, head to the Big Bourbon Bar which has cocktails from many of your favorite bourbon brands as well as a few you may not be familiar with. The Big Bourbon Bar also offered many seating areas as well as much needed shade.
The experiences across the festival grounds are varied so there is sure to be something fun for everyone in your group. You can head to the Music Experience tent to get your hands on some instruments and show off your skills to your friends and other festival goers. There are tents with artwork from some amazing artists that is up for purchase and browsing. The Bulleit bourbon arcade is there for some old fashioned quarter competitions. Headbangers Hall allows you to enjoy drinks served by some amazing celebrity guest bartenders at various times throughout the day.
Photo by Joel Lewis Photo
The Music Experience
The main attraction at Louder than Life are the 6 stages of music placed throughout the festival grounds in groups of 2. The side by side stage setup allows bands to play nearly continuously. There was approximately 5 minutes in between sets in the stage areas. This means a lot less downtime standing in a crowd before the next band starts playing on the left or right stage.
The main attractions were the Space Zebra and Loudmouth stages. This area is where a majority of the most popular bands and all of the headliners will play. This is also where you will encounter the largest crowds during the weekend, especially as the day goes on.
The main stages were placed in a way that provided the earliest shade for the crowd as the sun began to set behind them. This was a great help to cool down the large crowds in front of the stage at least a bit during the afternoon.
Photo by Steve Thrasher & Danny Wimmer Presents.
Bathrooms and Security
Any festival bathroom experience isn’t going to be quite as luxurious as using your home facilities and Louder Than Life is no different. However, DWP did a great job of providing an ample amount of facilities to handle the crowd. If you would like less of a wait and maybe a bit less chaotic restroom experience, you can opt for VIP or Top Shelf VIP admission which allows you a slightly less crowded area to get drinks and your own vip area restrooms. These are likely to be a bit cleaner and less crowded than the large General Admission restroom areas.
Staff and security were great for the weekend. There was plenty of help available if needed as well as medical tents if anyone in your group is feeling distressed. Security did a great job helping and being respectful to the crowd and safely catching crowd surfers from the front of the crowd throughout the weekend. They also did a great job keeping an eye out of distressed festival goers in the crowd and getting people out when they needed a break.
Photo by Joel Lewis Photo
Crowds, Safety, and Lost & Found
The crowd at Louder Than Life continues to slowly grow as the day goes on. By late afternoon the main stages have a very deep crowd so if you want to be up front, it may take some work and or early arrival prior to your favorite band. Most attendees were respectful within the crowd and had good energy. The crowd never got too crazy if you are used to the festival scene.
Slipknot and Rob Zombie had some great crowd moments as long as you are prepared to handle them. Crowd surfing was abundant, there were the usual mosh pits, as long as you know what to expect, the festival maintained a safe albeit wild at times crowd throughout the weekend. You could always find people helping each other out and picking each other up when there was any distress in the crowd or pit areas.
At the end of the day, if you have lost something, be sure to check the lost and found tent. You will be surprised how often your lost items are turned in no matter if it was a wallet or an apple watch.
The festival app and website also has a searchable lost and found section with pictures of lost items that you may claim and then go pick up with proof that the item is yours. This is sure to be a very helpful feature for a lot of attendees.
Would I Go Again?
Is Louder Than Life perfect? No, but they make a very good effort to come close. If you go in prepared to go with the flow and not have a rigid expectation list, you will have a great time. In the end, DWP puts on an amazing festival experience.
This was one of the best laid out and organized festivals that I have had the pleasure of attending. The crowd was what you expect from a festival of this magnitude, if you know what to expect from that aspect, I believe you will have an amazing time. The weekend was full of great people and great bands and it appears many attendees are already looking forward to the 2023 edition of the festival.
Photo by Joel Lewis Photo
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