They’ll both be at UofL Oct. 12 for the university’s first Discover Louisville Festival and ear X-tacy Concert.
The free event is designed to introduce UofL students to local businesses while opening Belknap Campus to the community.
Almost half of UofL’s students are from outside Louisville, said John Drees, director of communications, Belknap Campus.
We’ve had focus groups with students who have said they wished they had been introduced to Louisville niche communities and independent businesses sooner upon their arrival at UofL, he said. So that’s what we’re doing. This festival allows us to partner with the surrounding communities and bring businesses onto campus so students can get to know them.
For years, our students also have wanted a signature concert with a national or international group, Drees said. OK Go was at the top of their list, and we were lucky to be able to land them for our first festival.
OK Go, a Grammy Award-winning band that formed in the late 1990s in Chicago, has released three full-length records, toured the world and released numerous viral videos. One for Here It Goes Again, in which the band members performed on treadmills, has been viewed more than 52 million times on YouTube.
The band is touring in support of its latest album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, which was released in January.
The outdoor festival will begin at 6 p.m. on the Grawemeyer Hall Oval on Third Street just north of Eastern Parkway. Free parking is available in a UofL lot on Third Street, just south of Eastern Parkway and across from Reynolds Loft condominiums.
Music begins at 7 p.m. OK Go will follow two opening acts.
The festival and concert are presented by ear X-tacy, 91.9 WFPK, the Louisville Independent Business Alliance, UofL Student Government Association, UofL Student Activities Board and UofL’s Office of the President. The concert is produced by Production Simple LLC.