Memorial Day Weekend in New Albany

There's tons to do in New Albany on Memorial Day Weekend!

River Run Opens Saturday May 28th

River Run Family Waterpark will open its doors for the season on Saturday, May 28th at 11am. Last year, over 30,000 visitors passed through the gates, and we are looking forward to breaking that record this year. Additional parking has been added in the front of River Run to meet the high demand.

Kids can enjoy the wet and wild side on the waterslides, relax as they float leisurely on innertubes around the lazy river, or get soaked as they climb aboard the steamboat water feature. Let your tiny ones toddle and splash in a pool made just for them. Swim a few laps yourself, or stretch out on our poolside deck and soak up the sunshine.

Boomtown Ball and Festival – Sunday May 29th 

The Boomtown Ball and Festival is back for its third year with a wonderful lineup of live music from across the nation coming to downtown New Albany.  The event will be hosted around the new City Square improvement along Market Street, with an eclectic market full of records, clothes, art, crafts, and more for guests to check out.  Gates for this event open at 1pm, with music starting at 1:30, kicked off by none other than New Albany’s own Jamey Aebersold.

Lineup and Set Times:
• JAMEY AEBERSOLD 1:30-2 PM
• TYPHOID BEACH 2:20-2:50 PM
• ANCIENT WARFARE 3:10-3:40 PM
• KING MUD 4:00-4:40 PM
• OTIS JR & DR. DUNDIFF 5:10-5:40 PM
• KOA 6:10-7:00 PM
• KNOX HAMILTON 7:30-8:30 PM
• SMALL BLACK 9:00-10:00 PM

New this year is the partnership with Classical 90.5 for a New Albany-Floyd County Instrument Drive to benefit local schools.  From 4-8pm, new and used instruments will be collected at the Classical 90.5 booth.  These instruments will go towards our exceptional local music programs that continue to grow and thrive.  So if you have an instrument that doesn’t get the attention it used to, and want to help spread the joy and love of music to the next generation, please stop by the booth and help us get instruments into the hands of tomorrow’s musicians.

Boomtown Returns on May 29th!

Mayor Jeff Gahan and the City of New Albany, along with 91.9 WFPK are proud to present the third Boomtown Ball & Festival!

"We’re very excited about our third year hosting the Boomtown Ball & Festival," stated Mayor Jeff M. Gahan. "One new addition to the festival this year will be the Classical 90.5 Instrument Drive for New Albany-Floyd County schools. The Instrument Drive is a great way to expose young kids in our community to the wonderful world of art and music. I want to invite everyone to come help us kick-off the summer event season in New Albany."

This event will be held on Market St. in downtown New Albany on Sunday, May 29th. The City of New Albany has again enlisted the support of Flea Off Market to assist with the booth component of the festival.  Flea Off Market is a unique outdoor bazaar that will feature both regional and local New Albany vendors offering records, books, antiques, vintage items, fine arts & crafts, and more!

New to this year’s event is Classical 90.5's Instrument Drive to collect instruments for New Albany-Floyd County Public Schools. They will have a drop-off booth and activity booth open at the event from 4-8pm. The Carnegie Center will also serve as a drop off for instruments during the following week (May 31 - April 1). For more information on the drive, click HERE

Gates for this free, family-friendly event open at 1pm. The line-up for the outdoor stage begins at 1:30pm.

The initial line-up is here, stay tuned for more acts to be announced! 

Small Black  Gracing the cover of Brooklyn band Small Black’s new record, a mysterious woman walks alone on the dunes at dusk, amid pockmarked sand. She’s the subject of a found photo, one of many rescued with the warmth of a blow dryer and a fireplace, by singer Josh Hayden Kolenik after Hurricane Sandy flooded his family’s Long Island home. The faded image offers clues and invites viewers to construct their own narrative, one that escapes even the picture’s taker, Kolenik’s father.

To put it simply, Best Blues is an album about loss. The specific loss of precious people in our lives, but also the loss of memories and the difficult fight to preserve them. “I spent months trying to scan all these images & letters, most covered with ocean dirt, and in doing so discovered what people often find in their family’s past: that they are a hell of a lot like those who’d come before,” says Kolenik. The chorus of standout “Boys Life” echoes this sentiment with the refrain “pictures of youth/picturing you,” over a track that itself was an old demo re-discovered by accident by the band, during a late night jam session at a cabin in Upstate NY. The compassion of the record collects itself in the soft repeating mantra-esque hook in “No One Wants It To Happen To You”.

Knox Hamilton  hails from Little Rock, Arkansas. Fueled by the similar staples within their collective musical taste, the members of Knox Hamilton blend laid back guitar riffs and catchy bass lines with rhythmic drum beats and soaring vocals to produce a sound that’s as likely to make you want to visit the beach as it is to move your feet.

KOA are from Nashville, Tennessee — the "Country Music Capital" of the world— but the seven piece band is more interested in groove than twang. Founded by childhood friends and songwriting duo Chase Bader and Conor Kelly, the group mashes soul, rock & roll and funk into an eclectic, danceable sound, focusing on songs that aim for the heart, head...and feet.  

Otis Junior & Dr. Dundiff  Otis Junior is a young, emerging soul artist from Louisville, Ky.  Dr. Dundiff is a producer and lyricist who blends Old-School Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul, Jazz Fusion, Down Tempo Beats posted regularly on his SoundCloud. The two met last year and recorded an EP, due to be released this spring on Germany's Jakarta Records. 

King Mud - is Van Campbell from the Black Diamond Heavies, Freddy J IV from Left Lane Cruiser and features guitarist Parker Griggs of Radio Moscow. They joined forces in Los Angeles for a marathon session that gave birth to an album of hard blues, blue eyed soul, heavy rock, and feedback! “Victory Motel Sessions”.

Typhoid Beach   What started as a series of gritty, power demos has since evolved into Typhoid Beach- the passion project of Mat Pennington, formerly of Dream Eye Color Wheel and Riverboys. Pennington and company capture the spirit of an endless, youthful summer with fresh melodies that grab you and lyrics that won’t let go. With performances that make you realize these guys don’t know how to go to bed early, it’s hard not to join in. So buy a beer, get up front, and let the earworms take over.