Update 11:12 a.m.: Moved Indoors
The Louisville Orchestra announced Friday that the block party will be moved indoors to the Kentucky Center's lobby.
In a news release, orchestra executive director Andrew Kipe said: “Almost all of the elements will still take place. We can’t do the sidewalk chalk obviously and we won’t have a place to do corn hole, but we will still have all the bands and the LO Beethoven Concert will be simulcast in the lobby of the Kentucky Center.”
As of late Friday morning, the National Weather Service forecast showers and thunderstorms—some potentially severe—for Saturday afternoon.
Earlier: The Louisville Orchestra is taking it to the streets for the final performance of their 2014-15 season, with a block party on Saturday evening.
Main Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, in front of the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, will closed to traffic for this "bring your own chair" event. The festivities are free and open to the public, and will also include food trucks and games.
At 8 p.m., the orchestra's concert in Whitney Hall will be broadcast live on a giant screen to the crowd outside.
The party kicks off at 5 p.m. with local entertainment including the River City Drum Corps and the Louisville Leopard Percussionists. There will also be a performance from a group of students from Hartstern Elementary who have made their own musical instruments out of recycled materials like plastic bottles and paper towel rolls.
They've worked with music director Teddy Abrams to build their own "landfill orchestra."
Louisville Orchestra Executive Director Andrew Kipe said the students gained experience from the project in several ways.
"Once they've created the instruments, they get a physics component as they learn about the difference of how different instruments make different sounds," Kipe said.
The program for the orchestra's Whitney Hall concert includes John Williams' Cowboy Overture and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, plus a selection of classical and pop tunes by string trio Time for Three.
Following the orchestra concert, the music will continue outside with local rockers the Tunesmiths and hip-hop artist 1200.
In the case of rain, all activities will be moved inside the Kentucky Center lobby.