This is a republished story from our friends at Audience502. See more from Audience502 here.
Louisville’s festival season never really ends — and if you’ve ever wondered who’s behind many of the city’s most energetic, eclectic, and wildly fun community events, look no further than local entrepreneur and event producer Trevor Cravens. As co-owner of HB Productions and Crowler Catering, Cravens and his business partner, Tish Gainey, have spent the last decade shaping the city’s cultural calendar with beloved traditions like Tailspin Ale Fest, NuLu Bock Fest, Germantown Oktoberfest, St. Matthews Summerfest, the Bowman Aviation Festival, and nearly 30 other vibrant experiences.
We caught up with Cravens to hear about the in’s and out’s of making great events for the Louisville community. Listen to it here:Audio Player
Cravens is the kind of person who talks about events with the enthusiasm of someone describing their child’s first steps. His passion is infectious, and his schedule? Nearly unimaginable.
“I feel like I’m busy until I hear what you’re up to,” I joked when we sat down for our conversation. “How do you juggle it all?”
“We work a lot,” Cravens said with a laugh. “But we’ve also been fortunate to have incredible help — friends, volunteers, and a team that loves these events as much as we do. And when you walk into an event you’ve planned for months and see everyone having fun, it’s all worth it.”
The Birth of a Beer-Fueled Tradition
Cravens’ path to event production began in 2014 with the launch of Tailspin Ale Fest, now considered one of the nation’s premier beer events and a bucket-list festival for craft beer followers.
Before moving into the event world full-time, Cravens worked with Draft Magazine, where he first developed a love for craft beer culture. That background led him and Gainey to the idea that would change their careers.
“It’s a cliché, but Tailspin was literally planned on a napkin at a bar,” Cravens recalled. He and Gainey were sitting at the former Louisville Beer Store in NuLu waiting to meet Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewery. “We were talking about Louisville festivals and realized there wasn’t a winter beer event. So, we decided we needed to put one on.”
That scribble on a napkin turned into a festival that now attracts 70 to 80 breweries from Kentucky, across the region, and around the country. One thing that makes Tailspin exceptional is the brewery owners and brewmasters themselves often attend.
“If New Belgium comes in from Colorado, you’re talking to an actual brewery rep or owner,” Cravens said. “That enhances the experience. People don’t just drink — they learn.”
Tailspin returns March 7 at Bowman Field, drawing thousands of attendees with over 300 beers, live music, food trucks, the famous pretzel necklaces, and an atmosphere that feels like a reunion of Louisville’s craft beer family.
Tickets typically sell out by mid-February, and Cravens expects this year to be no different.
Goats, Beer and National TV: The Rise of NuLu Bock Fest
Right on the heels of Tailspin comes one of Louisville’s quirkiest and most beloved street festivals: NuLu Bock Fest, held this year on March 28.
“It’s honestly one of my favorite events,” Cravens said. “The goat races are wildly entertaining. People love them.”
When the festival first launched, attendance hovered around 5,000. But the year Louisville hosted NCAA Tournament games downtown, the crowd skyrocketed to nearly 25,000. And the goat races? They became a phenomenon.
“We’ve had companies sponsor goats as team-building activities. We’ve had families do it for birthdays. One sponsor even bought their goat afterward — they loved it so much they took it home.”
But the biggest news? ESPN picked up the goat races for its Ocho programming this year, meaning NuLu Bock Fest — and Louisville — will be showcased to viewers around the world.
“It’s just another way to put Louisville on the map for something beyond bourbon,” Cravens said.
Beyond the entertainment factor, Bock Fest — and all NuLu events — deliver major support for the neighborhood’s businesses. With 17 locally owned restaurants and bars between Baxter Avenue and Hancock Street alone, these free festivals can significantly boost sales.
“Some of the merchants tell us these are their biggest sales days of the entire year,” Cravens said. “It really helps support the local economy.
HB Productions organizes four major NuLu events annually:
- Bock Fest
- NuLu Summerfest
- NuLu Festival
- NuLu Jingle Fest
Each brings thousands of people downtown to rediscover a neighborhood that’s become one of Louisville’s most vibrant pockets of art, culture, and small business.
Shutting Down Streets and Bringing Communities Together
In addition to NuLu and Tailspin, HB Productions creates experiences all across Louisville. Cravens and Gainey currently produce 32 events annually, closing streets, transforming public spaces, and activating neighborhoods in ways that make Louisville feel like a big city with a local heart.
“We close down a lot of streets,” Cravens admitted with a grin. “Metro definitely knows our name — for better or worse.”
But the locations are intentional. Whether it’s Market Street for Bock Fest, Goss Avenue for Germantown Oktoberfest, or Bowman Field for Tailspin and the Aviation Festival, Cravens believes the setting is essential.
“Location is just as important as the programming,” he said. “People love being in places they’re not normally allowed to gather.”
The St. Matthews Summerfest, for example, doubles as a community fundraiser and features live music, family activities, and a wing competition supporting the St. Matthews Fire Department Benevolence Fund.
Germantown Oktoberfest, meanwhile, has become a neighborhood staple filled with music, food, stein-holding contests, and an unmistakable sense of local pride.
Weather, Logistics and the Unexpected
With so many outdoor events, challenges come with the territory.
“Weather is always the biggest challenge,” Cravens said. “We’ve been lucky most years, but when it doesn’t cooperate, there’s only so much you can do.”
He remembers Tailspin’s second year vividly.
“It was 17 degrees. Beer lines were freezing. Problems we didn’t even know existed yet were popping up.”
Experience, he said, becomes your greatest asset — but only after you’ve lived through a few disasters.
“You don’t know what you don’t know when you’re getting started.”
From Shutdown to Startup: The Birth of Crowler Catering
One of the most fascinating chapters of Cravens’ entrepreneurial journey came in 2020, when the pandemic shut down the entire event industry overnight.
“We had Tailspin on March 7. I went to a concert a few days later, and then everything shut down,” Cravens said.
Events disappeared. Revenue vanished. And Cravens and Gainey had to act.
By mid-April, they launched Crowler Catering, a creative pivot born from necessity — beginning with handmade cocktails and craft beer deliveries at a time when restaurants could only serve drinks to-go.
“Everyone was giving cocktails in soup containers with tape on top,” Cravens remembered. “We bought a canning machine and started canning cocktails and craft beers.”
They partnered with local restaurants to help sell food and deliver meals across the city. What began as a survival strategy grew into a thriving stand-alone catering business. Today, Crowler Catering serves corporate events, weddings, festivals, and private parties — often bringing along their converted ambulance, cleverly named Thirst Aid.
“It’s grown tremendously, and it complements our event work perfectly,” Cravens said.
Looking Ahead: A Year Packed With Festivals
For anyone wanting to plan their Louisville social calendar, Cravens recommends visiting HBProductionsLLC.com for details on all events, and CrowlerCatering.com for catering needs. The company also posts videos and recaps from past festivals on its YouTube channel, HBProductionsKY.
Audience Magazine will continue listing all HB Productions events on Audience502.com and in our Arts & Entertainment Calendar.
Before we wrapped, I asked Cravens what he hoped people would take away from attending one of his events.
“Get out and experience events,” he said. “Even if you’re not a beer lover, there’s something for everyone. It’s the ultimate social experience. You get to see your friends, meet new people, and just enjoy being part of the community.”
With a year full of festivals ahead — and ESPN cameras rolling through NuLu — Louisville can thank Trevor Cravens and his team for continuing to bring the city together, one unforgettable event at a time.
This article appears in Dec. 1-31, 2025.