As the evening rolled in, The Gillespie opened its doors for the growing crowd and anticipation awaiting Yelp’s Art in Action 2015! The event ran from 7p.m. to 10p.m., and hundreds of attendees made their way to the party throughout the night.
There were countless business, organizations, and nonprofits with booths throughout the first and second floor of the building. Before entering the main event, donations were taken for Yelp’s featured nonprofit for the night, Fair Event Vendors Alliance (FEVA), a group that works to connect Louisville’s LGBT community with wedding and event professionals who treat them fairly and equally.
Upon walking in, there was a cake by Sweets by Millie that everyone could decorate as well as mini cupcake samples of their products. They were delicious. Every booth was giving out information sheets, free samples, and spoke to us about what they did. The Louisville Ballet, the Louisville Orchestra, 502Foodie, Wood and Twine, and Team Friendly were just some of the organizations present. Focus Salon had a booth as well as a hair styling show on the main stage. Also, Leah Halston from Play Louisville had her vanity space setup by the stage so that anyone could talk to her while she got ready for the closing performance of the night!
Upstairs was filled with booths full of food samples, dessert samples, and drink samples galore! Everything tasted great from the marshmallow s’mores from 240sweet to the nachos from Spudz Chips to Butchertown Soda by Copper and Kings! Whether or not people knew of these local businesses beforehand, we all knew about them by the end of the night!
There was also a photo booth from the Magnolia Photo Booth Co., a booth by the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft where we could decorate our own bookmarks with paint, a unique lounge with pieces from the Louisville Area Furniture Society, and a live art show by Gallery K with three artists painting from in front of an audience.
This was an amazing night to participate in and one of those events that you don’t want to miss! It was interesting to break down barriers and get to know the businesses behind the delicious samples we tasted as well as to learn about new organizations doing fantastic things around Louisville! Louisville will definitely be on the lookout for the 2016 edition of Yelp’s Art in Action next year!
Photos by Irena Tran
