Volume 1, Issue 3
Owensboro’s only locally owned daily news.
THIRD QUARTER 2025
Daviess County, Kentucky
Free Publication
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20 years later, Taylor reflects on journey from battlefield crash to recovery
Loophole, by Barcelona-based collective Calidos, uses spiraling metal rings and projected light to create a mesmerizing visual loop. Photo provided by the City of Owensboro.
Illuminate Owensboro Organizers aiming for a mind-blowing nighttime experience beyond the drone show Forget everything you thought you knew about downtown events. Illuminate Owensboro is not a festival, it’s a full-blown sensory takeover. For three nights this October, downtown will become a living canvas of light, sound, and imagination, with walk-through light tunnels, candlelit concerts, and mind-bending art installations that will leave you stunned. At least, organizers say that's the plan, and it’s one that’s been in the works for more than six
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By RYAN RICHARDSON
years. Originally conceived as a creative alternative to the city’s Air Show during pandemicera uncertainty, Illuminate has since evolved into something far more ambitious. Guided by inspiration from international light festivals and immersive art events, City of Owensboro Director of Public Events Tim Ross and his team have spent years researching, curating, and coordinating what they hope will become the city’s next signature experience. “We wanted something totally different,” Ross said. “This
isn’t a replacement for the Air Show. It’s a reinvention of what a large-scale community event can be. It’s immersive, it’s interactive, and it’s unlike anything we’ve done before.”
A glowing debut
Illuminate, a free event, will run October 3-5 from 6:30-10 p.m. each night. The event features more than a dozen exhibits and experiences placed strategically from the blue bridge to the Owensboro Convention Center and from the riverfront to 3rd Street.
Photo by Lauren Howe
By RYAN RICHARDSON
A full interactive map will be released ahead of the event, helping attendees plan their route through the sprawling collection of installations, performances, and pop-up experiences. “We’ve been very intentional about the layout,” Ross said. “Each exhibit takes up a different amount of space, and some are designed to be walk-throughs while others are things you stop and watch. Some people will want to race through the entire thing in one
It was 125 degrees in the blistering Iraqi heat on August 12, 2005, when Clay Taylor’s Apache helicopter skimmed just a few dozen feet above the ground near Kirkuk. Circling what was believed to be a roadside bomb, Taylor and his team were performing a familiar task — securing the area until bomb techs could arrive. Then a higher-priority call came in. Troops elsewhere were under fire. As mission lead, Taylor started punching in new coordinates. And that’s the last thing he remembers before the
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