Waterfront Independence Festival
Great Lawn, Waterfront Park
129 River Road
July 3, 5 p.m. (fireworks at 10:30) and July 4, 5 p.m. (fireworks at 10:15 p.m.)
Ignore the 2008 that appears throughout its Web site, the Waterfront Independence Festival is being held this year. Only blankets, lawn chairs and sealed bottles of plastic water are allowed in though, so you'll have to hark back to Derby and remember, if you can, how you snuck in hooch to Churchill. For more information, check out Louisville.com's article about the festival.The event is free.

Bats baseball and Zambelli Fireworks Extravaganza
Louisville Slugger Field
401 E. Main St.
July 3, 7:05 p.m.
From the Bats' Web site: "Traditionally, our biggest night of the year is NOT Thunder Over Louisville. It is NOT Opening Night. It is NOT even the Famous Chicken. The game that draws the biggest crowd & sells out the quickest every year is our big JULY 3rd ZAMBELLI FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA!" Apparently all caps are necessary when talking about blowing up stuff. And because it's a minor league baseball game, where there are beer specials almost every night, there are beer specials both nights (one of these days I'll tell you about the Winston-Salem Warthogs game that was both Thirsty Thursday and Family Day: add me to the mix and several kiddies went home with expanded vocabularies).

Crescent Hill Old-Fashioned 4th of July
Peterson Dumesnil House
301 S. Peterson Ave.
July 4, 8 a.m. (with fireworks at 10 p.m.) and July 5, 10 a.m.
I told you there'd be another art fair in Louisville. This art and music festival, now in its 26th year, is free and also includes a 5k fun run and walk, a pet show and a watermelon-eating contest.

Louisville Orchestra Independence Day Celebration
RiverStage
511 Brighton Ave, Jeffersonville, Ind.
July 4, 8 p.m.
Patriotic music, including marches by John Philip Sousa and the "1812 Overture," will be blasted from the barge-cum-stage at this concert on the other side of the river. Tickets are free, although a donation of $10 would be nice. (Via LEO Weekly)

Summer Pops Concert
Jewish Community Center
3600 Dutchmans Lane
July 5, 7 p.m.
Growing up in Boston, I associate pops concerts as strongly as fireworks with the Fourth of July. Tickets for two-hour concert are $12 for non-members, $10 for members and old folks and $8 for the kiddies.

For more information: Interested in events this weekend not related to the Fourth of July? Then take your commie self over to Louisville weekend events that won't overwhelm your eardrums or patriotism.

(Photo: Zach Everson)