The Summer Rebound is highlighting events that bring Kentuckians together that either did not happen at all last year or were vastly different. It seems because last summer was such a bust, event organizers across the Bluegrass are banking on this to be the best summer ever.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) - Downtown Lexington is already buzzing with the news of the return of Thursday Night Live.
"We are ready to get people back downtown, back in the community, and we are just excited to be back," said Laura Farnsworth with the Downtown Lexington Partnership.
The event is officially back July 1 to kick of the Fourth of July weekend. It will run for 15 weeks with live music packing the pavilion at Tandy Park.
"It's that atmosphere we've just all been craving for the last year and a half," Farnsworth said.
The PGA is back in the Bluegrass this summer with the Barbasol Championship Tournament at Champions at Keene Trace. The tournament is coming out of the rough from a pandemic cancellation in 2020.
Tournament director Bryan Pettigrew said, "We're excited to have fans back out at the golf tournament, and our phones and our emails are ringing off the hook."
Last fall fans got a small taste with a charity tournament, but Pettigrew said they are ready to welcome everyone out for some great golf and family fun July 15-18.
"We watch the golf tournaments every week and each week there's more and more fans at each of these tournaments, and it just keeps making it more exciting for the Barbasol Championship to come back," Pettigrew said.
To whet appetites ahead of the Barbasol Championship, the Junior Championship will run June 28 through July 1. The top 120 golfers under the age of 19 will battle it out to get a spot in the big event.
Making its triumphant sophomore debut: The Railbird Festival. The inaugural event on the grounds of Keeneland was a smashing success in 2019, only to be stopped in its tracks due to COVID-19.
"We really wanted to build off the momentum going into 2020, and unfortunately we weren't able to do that," said Railbird producer David Helmers.
The 2021 event is set to rock out on August 28 and 29 with big names in the lineup like Dave Matthews Band and Jason Isbell, and tickets are flying.
Helmers said, "The response has just been tremendous. We've got tens of thousands of people who have purchased weekend passes, and we sold out the weekend VIP passes right away. We are as excited as can be, and I think the fans are also super excited."
Whether it's live music, bourbon or golf, fun is officially on the rebound in Kentucky.
LEX 18 wants to know what events are coming up this summer in your area. Send an email with the information to SummerRebound@wlex.tv