Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP), the production company that puts on the music festivals Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life, recently presented a collective $110,000 in donations to a group of selected Louisville nonprofits.
At a press conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center on Wednesday, Danny Hayes, CEO of Danny Wimmer Presents, presented checks to five organizations in Louisville: AMPED, Dare to Care, Louisville Visual Art, Sweet Evening Breeze, and the Preston Area Business Alliance. The Preston Area Business Alliance received $10,000; the other organizations each received $25,000.
Hayes said that DWP, through Louisville Tourism's "Leave the Legacy" program, is able to involve itself in a community on a deeper level than they can do in Los Angeles, where the company is headquartered. By donating to local nonprofits and "using the power of music to drive social change," he said, he and his coworkers can show that "our commitment to Louisville is deep."
Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life, said Louisville Tourism CEO Cleo Battle, are two of the three top income-generating events for Louisville as a whole. The first is, of course, the Kentucky Derby; Hayes said that in the next ten years, DWP aims to "beat the Derby" in local hotel nights purchased and to "add a zero" to their donation total.
Dave Christopher, the founder and executive director of AMPED, one of whose programs teaches young people a variety of skills related to the music industry, said that his students had gotten behind-the-scenes tours at the two festivals and had learned that working in the industry "is a lifestyle that you can have — something that you love, that you can do and then make money with it, and then you can help other people do it."
Stuart Walker, program manager of Sweet Evening Breeze, an organization that helps homeless young adults who are LGBTQ, said that the donation would help fund a transitional housing apartment complex, which is slated to open next year.
