Thunder over Louisville is a giant 11 hour event held in Louisville, Kentucky. This year it was held on April 22, 2023. It’s an event that features an insane airshow, droneshow, and fireworks. It is located along the banks of the Ohio River and you can sit just about anywhere along the river. With its massive scope and incredible hype, I ended up feeling a little bit disappointed with the show.  

The airshow started around 3 and ended around 9 in the evening. Unfortunately, that was single handedly the most boring part of the show for me. Nothing much really happened.
I just sat around and watched as the planes passed by and couldn’t help but feel that I could have been doing something better with my time. It also felt like they didn’t have a lot of airplanes. It felt as if they showed off one plane every hour. I also don’t have the attention span to sit around and watch one airplane fly around for about 30 minutes to an hour. 

At least the food saved this timespan when I was doing nothing. I had a couple of things to eat. I shared a bucket of fries with my dad. I’d give those a 9 out of 10. I also had a personal pan pizza from Papa Johns. I would give that an 8 out of 10. Finally, I had deep fried oreos. Those would get a 7.6 out of ten. The oreos were a bit burnt. My dad also brought some snacks along for the event. 

The drone and firework show at the end saved the event for me. The drones started first and lasted for maybe 10 to 20 minutes. They were incredible. The drones took many different shapes and colors in the sky. Some notable ones were when the drones turned into a T-rex, Olaf the snowman, and an image of one of the bridges that led into Louisville. Just before the drone show they asked us to all turn our flashlights on in remembrance of the people who were injured or killed in the Old National Bank shooting on April 10th. That moment really made me feel that Louisville was able to finally recover from what happened. That feeling was throughout the whole show, but it didn’t really come to a head until that moment. 

After the drone show, the fireworks started around 9:30. They were all brought in by massive barges on the river and on trucks on one of the bridges. The fireworks were the best part of the whole event. Each burst of color really did feel like it was the grand finale of a normal fireworks show we would see on the 4th of July. Every firework just got better and better. For the finale, they just let all of the fireworks burst in a grand stream of colors and sounds. It was one of the biggest spectacles I have seen in person. This show really does deserve the title as one of the best firework shows in the whole country. 

Overall, there was good and bad in this show. The airshow was one of the most boring events I’ve ever been to, but the drones and fireworks brought it back. I’d say if someone wanted to go to this event that they could consider skipping  most of the airshow unless planes fascinate you and stay for the fireworks.