Louisville Third Century

Louisville Third Century is a 35+ year old nonprofit dedicated to supporting the economic, civic, educational, and cultural welfare of Louisville, (now "jefferson county metro"). We are best known for large scale large,( 250,000+ annually), free-to-the-public festival events and concerts. What is not so publicly recognized is our role in funding over 50 various non-profits, city agencies, and numerous public and private k-12 schools and universities during that span with grants from our in-house "catalyst fund" underwritten, in part, by those events; a kind of binary business model with a philosophy of "it's about the project - not us; the toys not the toymaker. " To no one's surprise 2022 was a very difficult year. The onset of the "indefinite" shutdowns, and the secondary, and projected additional shutdowns forced Louisville Third Century to seriously consider closing our doors permanently. Thankfully a 2nd ppp allowed us to keep our staff in the hope that we would be able to "get through it- and avoid that terminal fate. Still, the timing could not have been worse. We were near the end of a multi-year plan to underwrite the entire start up, production and development of a fiscally self-sustaining festival event - the Louisville dragonboat festival. As with other dragonboat competitions l3c was dependent upon interstate,(and international), teams of 20 + to compete at our festival. As a direct consequence of the shutdowns teams were prevented from traveling and registration literally sank to zero. Coupled this with the restrictions on gatherings of 25 or more and the event was literally killed with no near-term prospect for resurrection. 100's of thousands of dollars, and years of creative energy were lost. Irretrievably. We kept pushing through to at least remain alive and in the hope that we could survive and recover as it were. And to some degree we did. L3c stepped up to lend support perhaps our longest "old friend" beneficiary st. mary's center, a non-denominational resource for mentally challenged adults. Most relevantly though, Louisville Third Century was the single largest cash sponsor of city sponsored festival events in 2022. In addition, to direct funding, our officers and staff dedicated, 100s of hours in in-kind service and lent our rather in-depth experience from 30 + years of free-to-the-public festival production toward metro Louisville's worldfest and light up Louisville. Louisville Third Century has been involved with metro (formerly "city") events since the mid-1990s. Worldfest has in its 20+ years grown to be the midsouth's largest multi-culturally based festival, receiving recognition from the international festival and events association as a "top ten festival in north america". With well over 150,000 visitors the 4-day, free-to-the-public festival features performances by over 70 regional and national acts, and a most amazing "gee, which one do i eat first" collection of intercontinental menus. Worldfest also hosts a global village represented by over 25 nations, over 100 artists and crafts persons, a "parade of nations, (led-weather permitting- by a l3c commissioned replica of the 2012 beijing olympic golden dragon). Most poignantly worldfest acts as the focal point for a naturalization ceremony; and l3c has since 2014 ( with exceptions for covid years) hosted a grand reception to welcome our newest american citizens as they join with their family and friends to be celebrate as the newest members of our Louisville family. L3c continues to work with the mayor's office for special events on developing new ways to keep worldfest thriving and relevant in the foreseeable future. Likewise, l3c was a central figure in the city's "holiday" festivities, as the principal sponsor for light up Louisville a 30+ day event which includes numerous family orientated activities celebrating this most cherished time of the year. And as with worldfest l3c staff and volunteers dedicated well over 60 service hours and incalculable intellectual input into the "thought behind- and "how to" aspects of this weeks-long community event. Plans have begun already for the morphosis ( or resurrection) of l3c's "steeple chase" in which, during light up Louisville, l3c works with churches and synagogues across the metro to rejuvenate their steeples and to open their doors for tours and samples of their holiday traditions. We look forward to working with the filson club, the arch diocese, and the courier journal ( lighting the steeples was one of mary bingham's greatest post war wishes), to bring about what could ( will ) be a truly unique event and hopefully a new holiday tradition for the people of jefferson county..