Three music festivals produced by a California-based company will have a new home in Louisville this year after flooding heavily damaged the events' previous site in 2018 — forcing one of the festivals to be cut a day short and another to be canceled completely.

On Tuesday, events producer Danny Wimmer Presents announced it will move its festivals — Bourbon & Beyond, Louder Than Life and the debut of Hometown Rising — to the Kentucky Exposition Center, a state-owned property near the Louisville International Airport.

The company had previously signed a 10-year lease with the city for use of Champions Park, where it's produced festivals since 2014. A city spokesman said Tuesday the city will have to discuss details of that lease with Danny Wimmer Presents now that the company has signed a new venue agreement.

Details of the company's new rental agreement with Kentucky Venues, the agency that manages the expo center, were not immediately available.

Hometown Rising:Louisville's new music festival to feature Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan

Danny Hayes, CEO of Danny Wimmer Presents, said the company was not forced to move locations, but it didn't want to lose the confidence of its customers by remaining in a site that has flooded.

"The cost to make it work there, we would have had to put in a substantial draining system," Hayes said Tuesday. "Even then, would the consumer trust us enough to go? We felt like we needed to make a move. The fairgrounds, the expo really provides us the best long-term plan to really make good on our long-term vision."

In conjunction with the announcement, Danny Wimmer Presents also released the lineup for the first Hometown Rising Country Music & Bourbon Festival, which will feature headliners Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Little Big Town among 30 acts spread across the two-day festival.

The festival will debut the weekend of Sept. 14-15, with Bourbon & Beyond following on its heels (Sept. 20-22) and Louder Than Life finishing the three-week set from Sept. 27-29.

Lineups for those festivals have not yet been released.

"We will have eight days of internationally prominent music, food and spirits and bourbon," within a 15-day span, said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. "There will be no other city anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world that will be able to match this type of entertainment, food and bourbon offering that we're going to provide."

Background:Bourbon & Beyond founder wants to make Louisville a rock capital

Danny Wimmer Presents has said it would produce three back-to-back festivals in Louisville since it entered into the original property agreement with the city in September 2017.

The agreement allowed the company to produce the festivals at Champions Park near downtown Louisville each year through 2026, paying just $1 in rent for the entire span, according to a document requested by the Courier Journal.

In exchange for use of the property, Danny Wimmer Presents agreed to spend $500,000 on improvements that could serve both festival and parkgoers. Suggested improvements included the construction of an open-air pavilion and the creation of a multiuse looped path system, along with the installation of at least three new drinking fountains.

Since the agreement was entered, the company has installed a 3,100-foot multiuse path that parallels Interstate 71, according to Jessica Wethington, a spokesman with Louisville Forward, the city's economic development agency. Two water stations have been installed, and a gravel parking lot and gravel storage area have been expanded. The estimated cost of the completed work is $150,000.

Neighbors living near Champions Park have criticized the company's use of the public space since it began producing concerts there in 2014, saying the music at the festivals was too loud, that trash was not removed from the park and that cars blocked residents' driveways.

The agreement with the city addressed many of the concerns, but after the park flooded in 2018 — forcing the company to halt Bourbon & Beyond and to outright cancel Louder Than Life — Danny Wimmer Presents again faced criticism for potentially damaging a layer of earth that covered a landfill beneath the park.

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In October, the mayor's office said an investigation by the state Energy and Environment Cabinet concluded that the landfill was not disturbed. Nevertheless, Danny Wimmer Presents has decided to move the festivals to a new location that's about 8 miles south of the Ohio River.

The events' new site will be called the "Highland Festival Grounds," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 2018 flooding, said Hayes of Danny Wimmer Presents.

On Tuesday, Hayes displayed an image of the fairgrounds that shows the festival site south of the expo center, on either side of Phillips Lane. A campsite will be set up east of the site, just south of Kentucky Kingdom.

Hayes said Danny Wimmer Presents and the expo center are still determining how traffic patterns will change during the festival dates.

The Kentucky Exposition Center is already known for hosting concerts at Freedom Hall during the Kentucky State Fair each August. The property has 19,000 parking spaces and can be accessed from four public entrances.

"While it will be a different experience at the fairgrounds, we are confident that DWP will make it a memorable experience and capitalize on the assets/benefits that the fairgrounds has to offer," Wethington of Louisville Forward said by email.

"Louisville restaurants, hotels and other businesses will continue to reap the benefits from the patronage of these festivals. It will continue to be a great attraction for our city for both tourists and residents to enjoy."

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In addition to offering music across three stages, Hometown Rising will feature a range of bourbon bars, a char house that lets guests dive inside the barrel and a Mash Stage that will lead bourbon and food demonstrations.

Local and regional restaurants attending the festival include Seviche, Couvillion, Boss Hog BBQ, Hull and Highwater, Joella's Hot Chicken, Merle's Whiskey Kitchen and Doc Crow's Southern Smokehouse & Raw Bar.

Tickets to Hometown Rising will go on sale at noon Friday. Weekend passes start at $99.50 plus fees, while single day passes start at $69.50 plus fees. A general admission "Trifesta" pass to all three festivals will cost $229 plus fees.

Find more information on Hometown Rising at hometownrising.com.

Related:Hometown Rising is more than a killer country lineup. Here's what to know

Bailey Loosemore: 502-582-4646; bloosemore@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @bloosemore. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/baileyl.

2019 Hometown Rising Festival lineup

SATURDAY

Tim McGraw

Little Big Town

Dwight Yoakam

[artist TBA]

Frankie Ballard

The Cadillac Three

Jimmie Allen

Lindsay Ell

The Steel Woods

Clare Dunn

Gabby Barrett

Kassi Ashton

J.D. Shelburne

Raelyn Nelson Band

Alice Wallace

Imaj

SUNDAY

Luke Bryan

Keith Urban

Brett Young

Jake Owen

Bret Michaels

Lauren Alaina

LoCash

Drake White and The Big Fire

The Wild Feathers

Mason Ramsey

Noah Guthrie

Everette

Lauren Jenkins

Jeffrey East

Hannah Ellis

Kendall Shaffer

Hometown Rising Country Music & Bourbon Festival

What: A two-day festival organized by Danny Wimmer Presents that will feature musical headliners Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Little Big Town. The festival will also include food and bourbon demonstrations.

When: Sept. 14-15. Doors open at 11 a.m. each day.

Where: Kentucky Expo Center, 937 Phillips Lane.

Cost: Weekend passes are $99.50 for general admission, $399.50 for VIP or $999.50 for Top Shelf. Single day passes are $69.50 for general admission or $229.50 for VIP. All passes have added fees.

More info: Visit hometownrising.com.