When attending many racing events, be it power-boat races, NASCAR or even the Kentucky Derby, you always feel the thunder as they race around the course. What a better way to kick off the two week party that is the Kentucky Derby Festival than with more thunder.

In this case, its Thunder over Louisville… a party on the banks of the Ohio River with 750,000 of your closest friends watching a day-long air show and one of the largest fireworks displays in North America.

The 2017 version of Thunder happens on Saturday April 22 starting at 2:30pm. The day is filled with the thunder of military planes buzzing downtown Louisville, aerial acrobatics, people jumping out of a perfectly good airplane and various military demos. The night finishes off with thunderous booms and colorful blasts perfectly set to music.

You might also choose to take in a baseball game as the Durham Bulls are in town to play the Louisville Bats, the AAA farm club for the Cincinnati Reds who’s stadium is on the river front as well.

Fireworks will cascade from two bridges and blast off from barges on the Ohio.

Thunder day also happens to be Earth Day, which is the same day that the world-wide March for Science is happening. Those marching in Louisville will have to wait a day until Sunday, April 23 to show their solidarity to support the sciences