What to know about Louisville's free Kentucky Shakespeare Festival

In May, Louisville’s Kentucky Shakespeare Festival — the longest-running free, non-ticketed Shakespeare festival in the U.S. — returned to the Central Park stage in historic Old Louisville. Through Aug. 9, you can see free nightly performances at the C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater.

This year’s season includes:

• “As You Like It” | May-July
• “Antony and Cleopatra” | June-July
• “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” | July

Plus, Kentucky Shakespeare’s Globe Players, the professional training program for high school students, will perform “Romeo and Juliet” July 29-Aug. 2. The season will conclude with the Louisville Ballet’s Shakespeare in Dance “Hamlet & Ophelia,” an original work by choreographer Roger Creel inspired by “Hamlet,” Aug. 5-9.

To celebrate the annual return of “the Bard” to Old Louisville, here are a few numbers that tell the story of Louisville’s beloved Kentucky Shakespeare Festival.

66: This year marks the 66th season for the festival.

18: The number of professional actors performing this season.

11: The number of weeks the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival spans.

25,000+: The average number of attendees each season.

50: The number of performances from May to August.

1949: The year C. Douglas Ramey founded The Carriage House Players theater company, which would later evolved into Kentucky Shakespeare, the official Shakespeare company of the Commonwealth.

The conclusion of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival is not the company’s final bow. Looking ahead, Kentucky Shakespeare will present “The Haunting,” the U.S. premiere of a thrilling stage adaptation inspired by the ghost stories of Charles Dickens, this fall. The company will also stage the Louisville premiere of “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott at Actors Theatre of Louisville in January 2027.