Have you ever been to one of these Brew at the Zoo events? I haven't. As we've discussed I'm deeply ambivalent about zoos and haven't been to the zoo since we moved back to town. That said this sounds awfully fun but good gracious $40 is a bit pricey. Designated driver tickets are $30 though. So my question is, since we'd be walking to and from the event, do we get the $30 tickets*?

Ticket Includes:
Samplings of microbrews, wine and restaurant specialties

Food sampling 4 - 6:30 pm

Beer & wine tasting until 8:30 p.m.

Official 4 oz. tasting glass

Live entertainment

Admission to the Zoo. Stroll though the award-winning Louisville Zoo. Exhibits open until 9 p.m.

Over 25 local restaurants will be present with food samples. It's an indecisive person's dream meal. 25 breweries will be providing you know, the actual brew from the event's title.

This is a 21+ event
Saturday August 23, 2008 from 4 - 9 p.m.
Oasis Festival Tent & Field
Louisville Zoo

*The actual ticket prices are a little nutty. If you order online ticket prices are $40, $30. If you buy them at the zoo box office which is already open selling regular zoo tickets you'll pay $45, $35. And if you buy tickets at the door, the day of the event, you'll pay $50, $40.

It's been terribly fun giving away ROARchestra tickets this month. I can't thank the Louisville Orchestra enough for providing Consuming Louisville with tickets to give away. Fine, fine people at the Louisville Orchestra and you can tell them I said so.

The final winner for 2008 ROARchestra tickets is....well light75 was the name left in comments. Congratulations light75. Please email me with your real name and so I can get the tickets ready for you.

Janice, come on down! You've won two tickets to the Don McLean ROARchestra concert this Saturday night. In exchange for winning you have to pay very close attention when he sings American Pie and tell me all about it later. Deal? Deal.

We have one more set of ROARchestra tickets to give away. These are for the final ROARchestra performance of the year on Saturday July 26. Let me once again thank the very nice folks from the Louisville Orchestra for providing these tickets to give away. Please let me know if you'd like to be added to the Louisville Orchestra's mailing list so you'll get the early scoop on upcoming events and ticket availability. There's an event coming near Halloween that my household is so excited about it's not even funny. Louisville Orchestra is doing very cool stuff and I am very appreciative that they're letting Consuming Louisville join in the fun.

The last ROARchestra performance of the year features Sha Na Na.

Always a favorite, Sha Na Na mixes it up with the Louisville Orchestra in an evening of "Splish Splash" "Blue Moon,"  "Rockin' Robin" and more!  Don't miss this timeless band that starred in the hit film Grease.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

8:30 PM - Louisville Zoo

Bob Bernhardt, Conductor

Same as always one winner will be selected randomly from all the entries I receive by 10PM Wednesday July 24, 2008. To enter drop a comment here or send me an email.

I Live in Louisville presents a profile this week of Kara Bussabarger who is the PR director for the Louisville Zoo. The most fascinating and awe inspiring part of the profile to me is the very first sentence:

Kara Bussabarger wrote a mission statement for herself a few years ago, which said that her goal in life was to "bring love, joy and fulfillment to animals and people" around her.

Wow. Doesn't Kara sound like an amazing person? Someone who actually writes a mission statement that includes the goal of bringing love, joy and fulfillment to both animals and people around her is someone I want to know. Kara, will you be my friend?

We surely do have kind, generous and nice people in Louisville don't we?

Go read the whole profile of Kara at I Live in Louisville.

Catherine come on down, you've won two tickets to this Saturday night's ROARchestra event featuring The Contours. Congratulations Catherine, I hope you and your guest have a great time.

The fun doesn't stop with Catherine though because as you know I've got tickets for next Saturday July 19 as well. That show will feature Don McLean. This show would be worth going to even if he only performed American Pie 17 times in a row. There are few songs that are so popular that still kind of tug on my heart. I can't help it, I'm a music geek.

Don McLean
Additional support by Kentucky Cancer Institute
Saturday, July 19, 2008
8:30 PM - Louisville Zoo Bob Bernhardt, Conductor

Unfortunately I scheduled a party for this date and will sadly be missing Don McClean performing American Pie not even a mile from my house. It is your duty to enter to win so you can tell me what a great time I missed.

Same as always one winner will be selected randomly from all the entries I receive by 10PM Wednesday July 16, 2008. To enter drop a comment here or send me an email.

Daniel Light come on down! You've won two tickets to ROARchestra for Celebrate America this Saturday July 5. Congratulations, enjoy the show.

Now we've got two more tickets to give away for next week's ROARchestra.

Picnic and party with "Motown's #1 party group" The Contours!  This high-energy concert will feature the Dirty Dancing hit "Do You Love Me" as well as impeccable harmonies on songs like "Shake Sherry" and "Can You Do It."

Saturday, July 12, 2008
8:30PM - Louisville Zoo

Same as always, drop a comment or send me an email to let me know you'd like to enter. One random winner will be chosen from all entries I receive before 10PM on Wednesday July 9, 2008.

The very fine folks at the Louisville Orchestra love you. They really, really  love you. Know how I know this? They've given Consuming Louisville two tickets to give away to each of the four Fifth Third Bank ROARchestra performances at the Louisville Zoo. That's love people.

Since there are four sets of tickets to give away I'm going to say that each person is limited to winning once. So if you win the first week you aren't eligible for the additional giveaways. Other than that it's the same as always. Leave a comment or send an email letting me know you'd like to be entered. I will randomly choose a winner from all entries received by 10PM Wednesday July 2, 2008 for the first giveaway. That first performance, by the way, is Celebrate America.

Bring your picnic baskets and lawn chairs for an evening of music under the stars.

Ticket price includes zoo admission, parking and the concert. Patrons may enter the zoo at 6:30pm.

This concert is full of traditional patriotic music like Lincoln Portrait and Sing Out, America, blended with all-American favorites like themes from Indiana Jones and Saving Private Ryan.  And of course it wouldn't be an American celebration with out everyone's favorite classical piece 1812 Overture.

Also, please let me know if you're willing to have your email address added to a list to receive special offers from the Louisville Orchestra. That's not a criteria for entering the contest, it's totally optional but I think you should do it because they've got some very cool stuff coming up soon that you'll want to get in on the good deals for. 

The week of April 6-13, 2008 the Louisville Zoo will be celebrating spring, and the environment I guess.

Copied directly from the link:

Celebrate the Earth and find out what you can do to help save our planet!

Over 30 exhibitors will be on hand with environmental information, games, crafts and more.

Visit the Party for the Planet: Party Zone on the front plaza where you can learn how to become a Backyard Action Hero, play cool environmental games

Other link:

Help us kick-off Spring!  Bring the whole family out for a fun-filled Zoo visit.  See what's new and blooming at the Zoo plus enjoy a variety of planet-friendly activities that will take place throughout the week.

You know I'm a namby tree hugger so it should come as no surprise that I'm ambivalent about zoos. I love being able to see magnificent animals with my own eyes but I hate putting animals in conditions that are artificial, particularly when these artificial environments are, at least in theory, harmful to the animals. When talking about being a flexitarian I say that I want the chicken or cow that I eventually eat to have lived a chicken's life or a cow's life, not an artificially captive and fed life of a feedlot animal. This same concept holds for animals that aren't part of the American food chain as well, including zoo animals. I want elephants to be able to live like elephants naturally want to live and they simply cannot do that in zoos. Most of my zoo ambivalence in fact stems from my love of elephants. I cannot fully explain why but I adore elephants.

This love of elephants makes me deeply torn over celebrating the Louisville Zoo's baby elephant Scotty. On the one hand he is an absolutely adorable baby elephant, what's not to love and celebrate? On the other hand Scotty will probably never be able to roam the estimated 35km a day like elephants in the wild do. The relatively sedentary nature of his life in the zoo is very different than the life he would lead in the wild. Thinking about this vexes me. Obviously it's a situation with absolutely no easy answers.

I haven't been to a zoo in a few years and I can't say if/when I'll return even though it's an easy walk to the Louisville Zoo from my house (in fact I walk past it quite frequently). What I can say though is that I'm an enthusiastic supporter of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. I've donated money to the Sanctuary and hope to one day volunteer there. If you're unfamiliar with The Elephant Sanctuary I advise you to spend sometime exploring the website and various news articles related to it. In a nutshell The Elephant Sanctuary is a 2700 acre plot of land that the resident elephants have pretty free reign over. They roam the hills and valleys at will, play in the ponds, develop social bonds and hierarchies with other elephants as they would in the wild. The Sanctuary staff attends to the elephants' food and medical needs but other than that pretty much leaves them be. Since these elephants, many rescued from bad zoo situations or circuses, cannot be returned to the wild this is, in my opinion, the very best thing for them.

All that being said the Louisville Zoo is celebrating their resident baby elephant's birthday with a massive party on March 15, 2008. For the party zoo admission is $1 or free if you're a zoo member, and TARC will be providing free rides to the zoo from various spots around town.

Have kids? Celebrate Christmas? Then get thee to the Louisville Zoo website to order tickets for the quickly selling out Pancakes Paws and Santa Claus event that takes place December 8-9, 15-16, 22-23.

The growls and squawks of the animals will give way to jingle bells and ho, ho, hos at the Louisville Zoo this holiday season. Join Santa Claus and his elves for a yummy pancake meal, crafts for kids and visits from Zoo animals like mistletoe the reindeer.  Your special ticket also includes a photo of your child and Santa plus all-day Zoo admission. Your meal will include yummy pancakes with fruit toppings, scrambled eggs, sausage and fried potatoes, plus Krispy Kreme donuts, assorted juices and coffee too. Make life-long memories when you bring the whole family to this wonderful holiday event!

Seating will be available in the beautiful Gheens Room in the Islands Pavilion at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Seating will be available in the African Outpost at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Please be aware that sessions fill quickly. We regret that we cannot offer “rain checks” for this event.

It's time for the fourth annual Brew at the Zoo at the Louisville Zoo.

Join us for the fourth annual Brew at the Zoo - a celebration with live entertainment, a wide variety of microbrews and great food.

Event Overview:
There will be different beers for tasting from 20 local & regional breweries. A selection of non-alcoholic products and water will be provided along with a variety of food tasting donated from over 25 local restaurants and vendors.

Live Music:
Two local talents, Stompbox and Two Guys Having Fun, will perform live at the Event. Bring your lawn chairs and picnic blankets to lounge on the lawn and enjoy the tunes.

Parrot Dice Casino and Raffles Baskets:
Do you feel lucky? Cold beer and hot dice are new for this year's Brew. Gamble with your friends for the benefit of the Zoo. In addition, The Friends of the Zoo will be selling chances to win one of several fantasy raffle packages offered.

Special tickets required
Purchase advanced tickets online until Aug. 24
Individual $38
Designated Driver $28

Advance ticket purchase at the Zoo box office until Aug. 24
Individual $45
Designated Driver $35

Day of the Event (Aug. 25)
Individual $50
Designated Driver $40

Price includes admission to the Zoo, live music, Official Brew at the Zoo

4 oz. tasting glass and brew and food sampling from participants.

(Food service 4pm - 6:30 pm, Beer tasting until 8:30 p.m.)