Wednesday October 15, 2025
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Just one week from today, the 52nd National Farm Machinery Show is returning to Louisville and brining with it the 49th annual Championship Tractor Pull.
The event, hosted at the Kentucky Exposition Center at 937 Phillips Lane, runs from Wednesday, February 15, through Saturday, the 18th. KY Expo Center parking is $8 with admission to the Farm Machinery Show free and open to the public. Tickets for the Championship Tractor Pull are available through Ticket Master starting at $20.
The National Farm Machinery Show is the nation’s largest indoor farm show, featuring nearly 900 exhibitors, offers the most complete selection of cutting-edge agricultural products, equipment and services available in the farming industry. In addition to seeing the industry’s newest products , visitors can attend free seminars from experts on topics including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), data handling, weather and commodity trends, and marketing.
Tyne Morgan and Al Pell will also be performing a live-taping of “U.S. Farm Report” during the show that visitors can stop by and watch. The show also features more than 80 vendors in the Gift & Craft Market in the South Wing Mezzanine, offering something for everyone.
Championship Tractor Pull
Former champions and a record-breaking number of women drivers will compete for a share of the $250,000 purse in 2017 at the 49th annual Championship Tractor Pull.
2016 champions including Terry Blackbourn, Steve Bunnage, and Mendi Nelson, among others are returning to try to keep their titles. The 2017 competition will also break last year’s record for women competitors as Anna Belle Bradley, Ashley Corzine, Julia Ray, and Kentucky’s own Monica Shaw and Lisa Tatum, along with many other female pullers enter the arena.
Over 70,000 fans are expected to attend the competition, which will include several new categories such as the 6,350 Modified 4×4 Truck and 9,500 Limited Pro Stock Tractor classes.
If you like the roar of Pro Stocks, Super Stocks, Modified, and Alcohol Tractors as well as two- and four-wheel drive trucks battling it out in the dirt, don’t miss the excitement every night of the 2017 National Farm Machinery Show in Freedom Hall.
Every Thursday through Sunday until Friday, December 23rd, downtown Louisville will be hosting Holiday in the City. Patrons of the event will be able to shop, ice skate, and enjoy local entertainment at 4th Street Live!.
The ice skating week is open daily. During the week, it open 4 PM until 10 PM, until JCPS goes on break, then it will be open 11 AM. Friday and Saturday hours are 11 AM until 11 PM. Sunday hours are 12 PM until 6 PM. Tickets are $10 per person and includes the skate rental. Season passes can be purchased for $45.
The Holiday Market is located on 4th Street Live!. Vendors include Home for the Holidays, Anatolian Fashion, Lucky Clover Farm, Myroslava Creations, Gyename of Louisville, Food Craft, German Sweets, Gluhwein, Don’t Forget the Flowers, and more. Some local businesses already in the area will be featured on the Gumdrop Trail. Participating businesses will be offering promotions and discounts during Holiday in the City.
The weekend has more entertainment, including free photos with Santa, live music, performances by CirqueLouis and a showing of the movie “Elf” on the giant screen at 4th Street Live!.
A full schedule of events and maps can be located on the website.
Mayor joins national experts, universities, employers at Ali Center on Dec. 9
Registration is now open for Power Forward, a workforce and education summit that brings together national and local experts, schools, universities and employers to collaborate on a more productive transition between education and career – helping create a stronger pipeline of talent for Louisville-area employers.
The event is Friday, Dec. 9, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Muhammad Ali Center. Registration is free at kentuckianaworks.org.
Power Forward is presented by KentuckianaWorks, 55,000 Degrees and Greater Louisville Inc. and funded by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
Mayor Greg Fischer, who has set goals for talent attraction and raising the education attainment and skills level in Louisville, will present at the start of the summit, and close with a challenge to the community.
Keynote speakers will include:
- Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania,
- Dr. Kate Ziemer, Vice Provost of Curriculum of Northeastern University, which has transformed from an urban commuter university into a top-50 national university partly on the strength of a comprehensive co-op program.
Additional breakout sessions and lightning and TED-style talks will feature an eclectic lineup of presenters and topics.
Light refreshments begin at 8:30 a.m., and lunch will be provided.
Christi’s Cafe Celebrates 10 years as a Great Local Business on Dixie Highway
In November 2006, Christi Druin took a chance and opened a small business on Dixie Highway. From that day forward, Christi’s Café has developed a great reputation for its home cooking and friendly service for the people of Valley Station.
On Monday, President David Yates (D-25) and Councilwoman Cindi Fowler (D-14) will honor Christi’s Café with a proclamation and a thank you for her continued success as a small businesswoman in Southwest Metro Louisville.
“Christi’s Café is a great example of how small businesses drive the growth of our local economy,” says Yates. “For that reason, we are proud to honor Christi Druin and her dedicated employees for their contribution to making this locally owned and operated business a success.”
Druin is a graduate of Valley High School and the mother of six.
Two years after she started Christi’s Café, she was able to expand and purchase a familiar place along Dixie Highway that was once noted for its food served to the people of Valley Station.
“Everyone has a favorite place to eat and Christi has never forgotten where she came from. She makes her business feel more like a place where you go to meet your family and friends,” says Fowler. “She is successful because she cares about people.”
Christi’s Café is located at 12810 Dixie Highway which has a history for the people of Valley Station. When Druin bought the building, it was the location of a closed upholstery shop. Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the building was the location of Scotties Restaurant which was a local favorite along Dixie Highway.
On Monday November 14th, President Yates and Councilwoman Fowler will visit Christi’s Café at 1:00pm to bestow the proclamation and offer their congratulations on her tenth anniversary of operation.
To learn more about Christi’s Café, go to: http://christiscafe.com/
photo: Gregory H. Revera
Although the technical name for the phenomenon is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system, we can simply call it a Supermoon for short.
A supermoon is when a full moon (or a new moon) occurs during the celestial object’s closest approach to the Earth during its elliptical orbit. As you might expect, this results in the moon appearing larger than usual in the sky.
The Moon’s distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 kilometers and 406,000 km (222,000-252,000 miles) due to its elliptical orbit around the Earth. A full moon at perigee appears visually larger by up to 30% and shines 30% more light than one at its farthest point, or apogee.
While the phenomenon occurs around once every 13 months, the supermoon that we will witness tonight, however, is extra special in that the Moon will be the closest to Earth that it has been since 1948. It’s closest approach, which which will occur at 6:23 a.m. on Monday, the moon will pass within 348,400 km (216,486 miles) of theEarth’s surface – approximately 22,000 miles closer than average.
Although there will be more opportunities to witness another supermoon in just over a year, the next time that it will be this close will be in 2034, so be sure to get out and see it in the early morning hours. The weather is predicted to only be partly cloudy overnight, so there should be ample opportunity to get a good view.
The Holiday in the City Christmas tree will be erected today in Holiday Square — the plaza at Fourth and Jefferson streets — near the ice skating rink.
Due to construction at the Kentucky International Convention Center, an artificial tree will be used for the next two years for Holiday in the City. The traditional 45- to 50-foot live tree that the city normally uses requires a crane to put in place, and the KICC construction does not allow room for that.
The tree will be lit during the annual Light Up Louisville ceremony, which traditionally kicks off Holiday in the City, on the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, 2016.
The tree, donated by Fourth Street Live!, will be especially visible with extra lights and ornaments.
While the 2016 NAILE continues through November 17, providing ample opportunity to visit the Giant Country Store, see livestock including cattle, goats, sheep, and swine, tonight marks your last chance to experience the thunder of the North American Championship Rodeo in the circuit finals of the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).
Top cowboys and cowgirls from Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin are competing for over $80,000 in prizes as well as the title of Regional Champion.
The circuit finals include a variety of events including the bucking of bareback and saddled bronco riding, the action of roping and wrestling calves and steer, the speed of barrel racing. The night culminates with the thunder of bull riding as cowboys seek to hang on for a full ride of eight seconds as a bucking bull weighing up to a ton or more tries his best to shake the cowboy from his back.
The rodeo starts at 7:30PM tonight with tickets starting at $32 for adults and $10 for children. Be sure to show up early to experience everything else that the North American International Livestock Expo has to offer, including more animal excitement like the Draft Horse show and Cowboy Mounted Shooting events, in which Cowboys and Cowgirls race through the arena at full speed atop their horse while attempting to hit all of the targets with real firearms (shooting specialized blanks, of course) in less time than their opponents. Continue reading
