Louisville’s Forecastle Festival of music, art and activism is getting a new management team.Founder J.K. McKnight started the Forecastle Festival with about $500 a decade ago in Tyler Park, an event attended by about 100 people.Last year’s two-day festival, at Waterfront Park with music headliners the Flaming Lips and Smashing Pumpkins drew some 30,000. McKnight announced Thursday that he’s forged a partnership with AC Entertainment, which produces the popular Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee and dozens of other events.McKnight will become an employee of the company, founded in the 1970s by Ashley Capps."I’ve absolutely fallen in love with Louisville, Kentucky," Capps said Thursday at a press conference. "I can’t wait to see what we’re going to be able to explore here together and create," he said.The timing of the agreement means there will be no Forecastle Festival this summer. The event’s tenth anniversary celebration has been delayed until 2012. McKnight says the smaller Halfway to ForecastleFestival is still on for this year. It will be held in early July.Capps says planning for Forecastle 2012 is in the very early stages.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.