Totally worth the money! We went last night (Friday night in early October) and there was no line…read more The actors were great, just the right amount of scary.

Their covid response is mediocre. They were not enforcing 6ft distance nor people wearing their…read moremasks in line. We even had the guy managing the line outside tell us to scoot closer to the people in front of us. We refused especially because people on the other side of the line that looped next to us weren't wearing their masks. My group was only 5 people so they put us with another small group. I thought that was weird because I think on their site they said that they were only putting people with their groups and not combining. The best thing is that the actors cannot touch you. I know haunted houses this year are weird but we still have to enforce these things especially with rates skyrocketing. Now to the scares... I had a blast. It was my sons first time at a haunted house and he kinda enjoyed himself. He was scared lol and I thought that was funny too. I convinced him to go because I told him that they can't touch you this year. Best time to go!! The beginning is what got us. They lined us up in this room and then turned all the lights off. It was pitch black. When the lights came on, the actors were standing right in front of us. You couldn't even hear them come in. That scared my son so bad. I knew this was going to be great lol. Once we started he had his ears covered the entire time. I laughed the entire time at him and the one actor that had the "dead baby". Good times!! I would go again.

We hadn't been to the Gaslight Festival in years and decided to make it part of our Saturday…read moremorning. My husband and I went early enough to not be uncomfortably surrounded by people while visiting the vendor booths. Booths were a mixture of local businesses and groups or small business vendors selling earrings, candles, soaps, cookies, clothing and more. The food vendors were similar to being at the state fair, offering lemonade, corn dogs and funnel cakes. My favorite snack was the popcorn. For the kids they offered a variety of activities - bouncy houses and carnival rides. The Gaslight Festival is actually a few days of events. Most popular activities are the 5k, parade and car show. Street parking can be tough to find but some organizations offer their lot for a small parking fee, which raises money for their group. Keep this in mind if you're wanting to visit a restaurant in the area. (You're likely not going to be able to park at their private lot)

The Jtown Gaslight Festival is a relaxed neighborhood affair -- a perfect festival to close out the…read moresummer with. I was impressed with the amount of booths at this festival -- probably two or three blocks' worth. And these booths included a mix of local businesses and nonprofits, artists and cheaper gifts. For example, if you bring a child and want to buy him/her something inexpensive, you can probably find it here. There is also a car show, which is fun to browse, as well as rides, live music and a variety of fair food. The kettle corn stand made the main thoroughfare smell amazing and rightfully so had a decently long line, which included me. A favorite part was that walking the streets of the festival allowed me to slow down enough to really take in the buildings and businesses lining downtown Jtown. I didn't know that Jtown had its on archeological society, for example. It also provided me an opportunity to check out the new Feast BBQ that just opened in downtown Jtown. Parking was decently easy to come by -- an added plus. It seems like Jtown is becoming a more and more popular place to live and do business. It was fun to see all of this on display at the Gaslight Festival.

With festivals coming back, I am revisiting all of them. Belknap is a 2-day event starting on a…read moreFriday evening and concluding Saturday. You'll need to find parking in the nearby neighborhood and then walk over to the festival. Local vendors and businesses have booths and this year we spotted a few food trucks. A few tables and chairs are provided to sit and eat. One section is geared to younger attendees, offering chalk art and pumpkins to paint. Music is scheduled during both days. This gathering felt small in terms of local vendors to shop and the volume of the music was overwhelming while shopping. The pathways also became crowded due to the streets having booths on both sides of the path. Same for the area in front of the stage which you need to pass through to get to other vendor booths. This is a "nice to do" if you're nearby or want to add it as part of your day, but I wouldn't choose it over other favorites.

If you live in or around the Belknap neighborhood you already know about this annual festival. It…read morealways happens right as we're entering the Fall and so weather wise I feel like it's PERFECT! They have a huge outdoor stage with live music to help you dance the night away. If you're into shopping local, drinking draft beer, eating food, or just walking around and looking at other people...check this festival out. Oh it's free, btw.

So grateful I spotted this experience on Groupon and took a chance. My family of four came on a…read moreFriday night - a bit earlier around 9:30p so the wait wasn't bad. The haunt has several stands in the line for you to read about the story and a video screen showing movie clips. The actors were fantastic. They made the line as much fun as the haunt. We loved watching them startle incoming guests. Before going in a group picture is taken and you can buy the copy for $5. Overall, several rooms to walk through and they've really made it full of animatronics. I didn't want to walk too fast because there was a lot to appreciate - even if it meant extra attention from the scare team. There's other fun areas you're "locked" into with a character and they get real close. Some areas of caution. It is built within an industrial building and there's a few steps and bumps along the path. They tell you not to run for a reason. One area is full of strobe lights and smoke - I had zero visibility. Thankfully my kids realized I was disoriented and grabbed my hand to pull me through or I'd still be there! The finale of the haunt is what adds my fifth star. A gift shop of clothing and decor, a snack truck, animals from a sanctuary to pet, desserts to indulge in - plus an escape room. We spent just as much time enjoying this and everyone was so friendly. Street parking plus a private lot available. Security to wand folks at ticket booth. Porter potties are clean. Lighting in key areas.

LOVE this haunt, we go every year and the make up and acting here are EXCELLENT!! Actor #71 was my…read moreabsolute fave ~ the make up and creep factor he puts are SOOOOOooooooo good!!

I love these Jack O' Lanterns. They were amazing again this year!…read more I'm disappointed to see the tickets moved to a Ticketmaster platform which added extra fees that increased the cost. We opted for the 9:30 tickets on a Thursday, arrived around 9:15 and finished the trail at 10pm. I was disappointed that the gift shop and the food trucks were closed at 10pm when there were still people on the trail. I would have looked to look at the merch while eating a warm treat.

A perfect Monday night to see 5,000 carved pumpkins on a 1/3 mile trail. We reserved the 7:30 pm…read moreslot again arriving at about 6:45 to get in line. Despite being a good sized crowd for a week night we were in our car by 8:35 pm. Timed entry makes a huge difference. Also, going on a week night rather than a weekend is beneficial. We have now attended all 13 years of this event. It's truly our favorite Halloween event. Seeing all the intricately carved pumpkins is breathtaking.

St Rita Summer Picnic is a yearly Catholic Church picnic that traditional runs the 3rd Thursday,…read moreFriday and Saturday of July with Thursdays being a ride night only and Friday and Saturday featuring the whole picnic. As an actual parishioner of this church I've attended this picnic since a young child and been to over 30 picnics and I've actually worked/volunteered at the picnic since my 7th grade year and for over 25 years. As mentioned Thursday is strictly a ride night. In the past they have had carnival rides but recently they have switched over to inflatables. They usually charge $15 an armband and you have unlimited usage on the inflatables. They offer the this same package during the picnic on Friday and Saturday nights. The picnic itself consist of place a dime on a number and spin a wheel type games for prizes from booths such as cake, plants, fruit, and toys. They also have booths and games aimed for younger kids such as duck pond, 4 in a row, sand art and even have a used book sale located inside the church. The picnic also features a beer garden out on the baseball field that offers beer tickets (usually $4 a ticket) gambling options like showdown poker, over/under dice game, big 6 and pull Tabs. Food wise they usually have a few carnival style food trucks that offer pizza, pretzels and nachos. They also have a sandwich booth worked by volunteers that sells fish sandwiches, brawts, hotdogs and French fries. Their is a super popular Mexican street corn/elote booth and a taco and fajita booth that is really tasty. To add even more to the great food options the picnic on Saturday only from 4pm-730pm have a chicken dinner inside the gym. This is extremely popular and usually on Saturday at 4pm the ticket line is wrapped around the whole Picnic. Tickets are $13 adult and $10 and you get two big pieces chicken, with unlimited sides featuring noodles, cole slaw, cucumber salad, green beans and tomatoes. It also features unlimited refills of tea, water or lemonade and a ticket for an ice cream. The dinner is worked by the parish members kids and they always work real hard and take care of the customers. The reason the line is so long is they chicken and sides are great. Very filling and tasty meal. Overall a very fun and busy picnic. Friday nights are the more mild nights as Saturday's can get jam packed crowded. Very popular picnic in the area and many refer to it as an okolona (community it is located in) reunion. I'm a bit biased being a long time visitor and worker but me and several others have made very fun and life long memories over this 2-3 day picnic.

Even though I have not been in mini years Saint Rita picnic will always hold a spot in my heart. I…read moregrew up in this area and I've been to this picnic mini mini years many times I've had a lot of memories and ever since I've had children it's been more difficult to get out to the picnic because I don't really have babysitters and things I have taken them to ride night and they enjoy that but the days in my teens and 20s of going here and just having a blast with all my buddies are long gone but the memories are still there.

The Louisville area is known for hosting quite a few popular events. Derby events such as thunder…read moreover Louisville, the oaks and the historic Kentucky derby itself. They host big annual concerts such as forecastle and louder than life. However Louisville spookiest and most creative annual event takes place every August in the highlands on the corner of Bardstown road and eastern parkway. It's is known as the Louisville Zombie attack or as locals call it the "zombie walk". This is a free event where people go all out and dress as zombies and other cool creative costumes and they roam around the popular highlands area that is filled with restaurants and bars. They have vendors setup in the street and usually live music and entertainment. The event is well secured and patrolled by local Lmpd and have barricades/port o pots and things setup to contain the big living dead bash. Even zombies neee barriers and potty breaks! This is kid friendly. While it can be spooky for some kids (it is a zombie walk) the people out for frights usually don't mess with the little ones and are more then willing to stop for photo ops With the little ones. If your child scares easy then I would skip it. However, I'd say it's main audience is adults. It's usually on a Friday or Saturday night and highlands is a popular bar area so there is lots of drinking and dancing activities around including in the live music and beer tent area. The whole walk back and forth maybe takes an hour or so and they do shut it down after certain times. We usually just get dressed up find a place to street park and circle around a few times and take in the sites and fun . The bars and restaurants are open but we usually skip eating because the crowds are so large. From my understanding this started as a flash mob in 2005. And slowly became what it is today. I think we've been to this annual late August event 3-4 times and we have loved it every year we have attended. It's the event we look forward to the most annually. With it being in late August it puts you in the spooktacular mood for Halloween coming up right around the corner. Lots of fun and highly recommend checking out if you enjoy Halloween or spooky type things.

Gotta say -- not too impressed with the latest iteration of the annual Louisville Zombie Attack…read more This used to be one of my favorite weird Louisville traditions (as you can see from my previous review). But it was recently taken over by another business and permanently moved to a Saturday, rather than annually on Aug. 29. And with it being on a Saturday, it seemed so much bigger than in years past and with that came more drunkenness and rowdiness. Holding the event on weekdays may have kept some of that back. As odd as it may sound, the Louisville Zombie Attack was much more well behaved in the past. There were many more kids and teenagers, and while there was drinking, the undead masses were out in the best spirits and seemed excited to be a part of a great event that was welcoming to everybody. This year, though, people were making out and over indulging, even with scores of kids around them. It reminded me more of the worst of the St. Patrick's Day festivities. I and my husband got pushed off of the sidewalk into the street by people who were drunk and oblivious. We saw a few people come up right next to the kids we were standing by, smoking. And while I hate -- HATE -- smoking, I hate it even more that these people were so inebriated that they were waving around their cigarettes, coming way too close to burning the kids. It was hard to see through all of this if the parade was managed properly; perhaps it was. But my hope is that the zombie attack becomes more about, well, the zombies and a great time overall for all, rather than just a drunken mess.

If you're local I highly recommend you take the day off from work and school and visit during a…read moreweekday. I easily printed off the school excuse form, which was accepted by my son's high school. We picked tickets up from Kroger. At only $9 they included parking. Tickets could be ordered online for $12. At the gate you'll pay a much higher entry fee. I appreciated the social media page sharing which gates were open for entry as well as the parking lots for visitors. Even better there were workers guiding traffic to parking. So much smoother this year! The fair offers a little something for everyone. It's best to check out their website for schedules - from shows and animals to types of exhibitions. Each night offers a free concert and music at the beer tents are popular. There's now a small beer festival. The midway is in front and it is not covered by any shade. You've been warned. You're going to spend money, much more than you'd consider on a normal day. But the food is going to suck you in!!! Corn dogs, funnel cakes, ice cream, fudge, caramel apples, taters, doughnut burgers, and more.

This is my 3rd year attending on the designated Senior Day of the fair. This is always falling on…read morea Tuesday when the barns are being switched over midway through the fair season, so not as many animals on site for viewing. We viewed the usual quilts, baked goods, and canning competitions as we wound our way through the exhibition halls. I also had my mandatory Dole whip. Overall, a good time was had by everyone in our group.