Ready to own summer, but don’t know where to start? Evansville Living’s staff has some thoughts, and they dig deep into Southwestern Indiana culture. Why just go to the movies when you can fill up on chili dogs and take in a double feature at the drive-in? Why settle for store-bought produce when Hoosier-grown sweet corn and watermelon are ripe for the picking? Living in this corner of Indiana, every summer day can feel like a John Mellencamp song. Here are some of our favorite ways to make your Indiana summer the best one yet.
Make an Experience Out of Going to the Movies
In Southwestern Indiana, we don’t just go to the movies — we treat ourselves to an open-air feature at the six-screen Holiday Drive-In about 30 miles east of town in Spencer County. And because we’re Hoosiers, we celebrate an Indiana summer by first swinging by the TF Ice Cream in Boonville. Order a foot-long chili cheese hot dog with a walking taco, pair it with a cherry malt (or a float featuring Derr’s soda, another Boonville landmark), then head for the night’s first shows at the Holiday; films typically begin between 8 and 9 p.m., but the exact start time aligns with when the sun dips below the horizon. Open nightly through July and offering a double feature Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, it’s a quintessential step back in time. On the drive home, take it a step further: Roll down your car windows and crank up the volume to John Mellencamp’s 1982 classic “Jack & Diane.” Cliche? Sure, but also timeless to anyone who appreciates Indiana culture.
Place Your Bet at the Racetrack — and Not Just on a Horse
Riders up! You’ll find the Bluegrass State’s passion for thoroughbred racing starting in July at Ellis Park Racing & Gaming (which may be on the north side of the Ohio River, but it’s still across the Kentucky state line). Its annual live horse racing meet runs through Aug. 24, allowing fans to see “The Sport of Kings” up close and place bets on national and international contests. Since its centennial season in 2022, the racetrack has sat under the umbrella of the owner of Louisville’s Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Ellis Park’s calendar isn’t limited to just horse racing. Special events include contests starring dachshunds and corgis hoofing it across the dirt track. This year’s canine competitors take the track July 19 for qualifying races, and then the fur flies Aug. 16 when the top six of each breed face off in the finals. If you’re hungry before, during, or after the races, visit Dade Park Grill, a nod to the facility’s original name from the ’20s. After Ellis’ season ends in late summer, horse racing slot machines are open to gamers 365 days a year.
Catch Up on Your Summer Reading List
We’re not going to tell you what to read — we hear the latest issue of Evansville Living is a great place to start — but we’ll share our secret to finding the focus to make a dent in your summer reading list. First, grab a book: Find one penned by a local author at Your Brother’s Bookstore, try a blind date with a novel sporting a camouflaged cover from Bluestocking Social, or pick up a new release at Barnes & Noble. Then, throw out a blanket underneath a tree at the Evansville State Hospital Park, but don’t pick any ol’ canopy. Spread out beneath the 100-foot canopy of the 220-year-old cherrybark oak, proudly the state champion for its species. Toss some eclectic goodies into your basket, such as Bungeo–ppang or plantain chips from Aihua International Market, or Dorilocos (a Doritos-pork rinds match made in heaven) from Helados Ice Cream, Antojitos, and Snacks.
Catch a wiffleball game — or join in!
Wiffleball is a perfect summer sport for the simple reason that it’s both fun and forgiving if you’re not an MLB All Star. Can’t haul it around the bases? That’s OK — the distance of your hit determines what base you get, anyway. Don’t have a power swing? Just roll with it. Don’t have a team? No worries. You can form one, sub in, or cheer on your favorites at Haynie’s Corner Wiffleball League games on Monday and Tuesday evenings at the Doug Annakin Memorial Field next to the Alhambra Theatre. Relaxed bouts of ball — with a hot dog chaser, of course — take the edge off the early workweek and culminate with the playoffs and championship in early autumn. August’s Bellemeade Park Wiffleball Bash adds a philanthropic element to the casual sport by making its round-robin style play double as a benefit for the Boys & Girls Club of Evansville. Games start Aug. 23 and feature a single elimination bracket and a home run derby between games. Marking the end of the season is the River City Wiffleball Classic, a fundraiser for homeless nonprofit Aurora that’s held at the decidedly not-casual Bosse Field. This year’s tournament is Sept. 27.
While Away An Entire Day at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden
Need to fill a full day’s itinerary? Head to the historic West Side zoo and botanic garden. Flora lovers will fall for the tropical blooms, especially orchids, throughout the balmy 75-degree rainforest setting in Amazonia. Meanwhile, Monarch butterfly fans will want to pause at the pollinator garden stretching across the hillside by the Kley Memorial Building — also home to the zoo’s new rhinoceros. With more than 700 animals taking residence at the zoo, it’s easy to make new friends. At the Discovery Center, catch a glimpse at the zoo’s newest residents: Francois’ langurs named Kimly and Tashi, who relocated from the Los Angeles Zoo in March and joined Badu and Kiki, another pair of the black leaf monkeys. There are chances to learn something new around every corner — did you know that Berta, a 58-year-old Bornean gibbon who lives in the Asia section and has called Mesker home for 23 years, is the oldest known member of her endangered species in the world? Stop for lunch at Rainforest Grille, then trade your tokens for a tram tour or paddleboat ride on Lake Victoria. Get up close with friendly wildlife by feeding fronds to giraffes Clementine and Kijana in the African Rift or fish to one of the 14 Humboldt penguins in the Penguins of Patagonia exhibit. Listen to the vocal styles of chirping birds as you feed seeds to warbling budgies in the Amazonia section’s enclosed outdoor walk-through. No visit to the zoo is complete without saying hello to Beliza, a 19-year-old female jaguar, who is healthy and thriving since being diagnosed with and treated for cancer in 2019. And starting in August is Wild Summer Lights, a massive custom light display from the company that produced recent lantern exhibits at the zoos in Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri.
Make Any Summer Day a ‘Holiday’
What was that you said? We couldn’t hear you over the sound of screaming passengers as the 163-foot-tall Voyage careened by. The jaw-dropping wooden roller coaster has been a hit with thrill-seekers since opening in 2006 at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, but the nearly 79-year-old amusement park in Santa Claus, Indiana, has much more to offer. Through Aug. 3, enjoy Holidays in the Sky, a nightly show of 500 synchronized drones. Until Sept. 1, check out the Nerveless Nocks stunt team’s aerobatics on jet skis and motorcycles. The water park’s slides, wave pools, and lazy rivers are ideal for cooling off, and don’t just take our word for it: USA Today named Splashin’ Safari the country’s No. 4 best outdoor water park this year. Don’t skimp when applying sunscreen — the park offers it for free.
Make Your Meal Alfresco
Several restaurants have porches or patios for outdoor dining, but those aren’t the only ways to take your meal outside this summer. Food trucks are out in force at seasonal events like the Old Courthouse’s Lunch on the Lawn. For some of the biggest burgers in town, cruise into Zesto’s locations on Riverside Drive or West Franklin Street, or Big Top on Maryland Street, and pair double-stacked patties with a butterscotch dipped ice cream cone. Speaking of burgers and ice cream, how’s this for a summer scenario: Drive through one of Lic’s Deli & Ice Cream’s seven locations for a tower of soft-serve sweet scoops in 20 flavors. How about an old-fashioned picnic in Garvin Park or Wesselman Park? Or a pie-eating contest at the Vanderburgh County Fair? As long as there’s food and summer, the possibilities are endless — and delicious.
Fill Up on Fresh Food Straight From Hoosier Fields
Do you take your sweet corn Sugar & Cream or Silver Queen? In the toe of the Hoosier State, we have a choice. Southwestern Indiana farmland — more than 556,000 acres combined in Vanderburgh, Posey, and Gibson counties, by a 2022 USDA count — yields thousands of bushels of fresh food each harvest, from backyard cucumbers and heirloom beefsteak tomatoes to crunchy bell peppers and juicy peaches and nectarines. Even the well-drained, sandy loam soils along the Wabash River are perfect grounds to grow seeded cantaloupe and red amber and sugar baby watermelon — in fact, the dual-state Illiana Watermelon Association triangulates most of its annual melon crop to a 50-mile corridor running along U.S. 41 in Posey, Gibson, and Knox counties. Summer wraps up with harvests of apples, corn, zucchini, and those aforementioned varietals of corn. Did your family gather each year to handle crop yields themselves? You may share some sticky summer memories with Managing Editor Jodi Keen; read more from Final Detail, “Swapping Corn Husks for Stories.”
Commit to Having Pocket Change
It’s the season of neighborhood lemonade stands run by budding young entrepreneurs, and you don’t want to disappoint them by having only a card to pay for a cup of that fresh-squeezed goodness. Before leaving the house for a walk with your dog or an energizing bike ride, slip a few small bills and quarters into your pocket so you’re not caught unarmed when placing an order at tabletop homemade drink stations — or pop-up stands selling everything from friendship bracelets to impromptu glitter portraits — that don’t accept Venmo. For kids, cash is king!
Discover Your New Favorite Band
There’s nothing quite like the sounds of summer, and plenty of music-centric events
know how to carry a tune. Get in the groove at WNIN Jazz Fest, headlined this year by multi-instrumentalist Monte Skelton. Food Trucks at the Farm mixes weekly live music sets by acoustic musicians like Cynthia Murray and Lindsey Williams in a food truck-laden festival atmosphere at Farm 57. Eleven years running, Front Porch Fest in Haynie’s Corner Arts District closes out summer with sets by more than 50 acts like punk rockers The Chugs, singer-pianist Kelsey Ellen, rock ‘n’ rollers Atlas of The Dogs, and skiffle band The Old Goat Show strewn across the front lawns of the neighborhood’s historic homes. Feeling inspired? Craft your own tune at the Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriters Festival, held mid-July in Henderson, Kentucky, and drawing Nashville, Tennessee-based singer-songwriters to share their talent and tips.
Pick Your Own Adventure
This isn’t life advice, just practical advice. Get out of the grocery store by picking your own produce at area farms, including peaches at Evansville Countryside Orchard. You also can find fresh, from-the-farm produce at Mayse Farm Market, where you also can pet the farm’s miniature donkeys. If your path calls for flowers, Timberview Flower Farm offers U-pick opportunities on select summer dates on its 20-acre farm, or schedule a private visit to make your own bouquet. Sunflower lovers stop by The Red Barn Farm off Libbert and Oak Grove Roads in Newburgh not just for a clutch of the yellow-petal plants but also to grab a photo among the fields.
Don a Faux Sumo Costume for a Sparring Contest
Who says Otters games are solely about baseball? Sure, there are nine innings of ball playing, but the fan contests between innings offer classic games that have become synonymous with minor league matches. On your next outing to see the boys of summer face a Frontier League foe at Bosse Field, sign up to slip into an inflatable suit and live out your deepest sumo wrestler dreams, or spin yourself dizzy around a bat, forehead down, before — and we can’t stress this enough — attempting to dash off to a nearby finish line. Think foot races are too easy? Think again when you’re balancing a bobble head of F.J. Reitz while sprinting all but blindly from third to first base. Is it silly? Of course. But that’s part of the fun! And what better way to work off those peanuts and Cracker Jack?
Attend Church Summer Socials
Food and fellowship are the top — but not the only — draws at the outdoor socials held by Catholic parishes, with crafts, carnival rides, and car shows all part of the fun. At St. Wendel just west of the Posey County line, more than 100 goodie-stuffed baskets are raffled off; some top $150 in value. The lawn around St. Bernard in Rockport, Indiana, is covered in cool autos for a classic car show each summer. Find big-ticket items (like a Big Green Egg grill) at St. Philip in Mount Vernon, Indiana, and don’t miss the half-pot raffle: Last year’s winner took home $2,284! Then, there’s the food. St. Bernard goes through 600 gallons of turtle soup (made today with pork instead of reptile meat), and St. James in Haubstadt, Indiana, dishes out bowls and to-go tubs of burgoo meat stew. Fried chicken dinners are on most parish menus, too.
Go For a Hole-in-One
You don’t have to be a pro to enjoy a game of golf. A mere 18 holes isn’t enough at Walther’s Golf & Fun, which offers two miniature golf courses where casual fans can play outside or dodge the heat in the comfort of an air-conditioned indoor course. Add lazer tag to the mix — a 15-minute game can accommodate up to 25 players. If you prefer discs to golf balls, connect with the Ace Eagle Disc Golf Club for a game of disc golf. The nonprofit provides clinics for the public and supports a number of competitions and special events in the summer and year-round. Those who crave a traditional game of golf can hit the links at a trio of municipal courses — Helfrich, Fendrich, and the nine-hole McDonald — plus The Farm (formerly Thunderbolt Pass), now managed by former PGA Tour golfer Dylan Meyer. Swing not ready for the public? Make a game of practicing on the simulators at Club 18 at Mister B’s or Birdie’s. Another spot for beginners or putt-putters to enjoy the game is Howell Par 3 and Miniature Golf. The nine-hole Par 3 course is open to players of all skill levels, while the mini-golf course promises fun for all ages.
Stay Cool
Summers can get pretty hot and humid around here. To beat the heat, make a splash at Burdette Park, which boasts Olympic, family, and kids’ pools as well as two slides and a spray park in one of the region’s largest aquatic centers. The indoor Deaconess Aquatic Center offers an outdoor splash pad, too, as do the city’s trio of municipal pools. No time to don your swimsuit and jump in the deep end? Stop by a seasonal pop-up shaved ice stand — Paradise Ice on Lincoln Avenue, Cochs Cones on Petersburg Road, and Roy Boy Shaved Ice at Pat Coslett’s Simplicity Furniture on North Green River Road are three favorites. And Newburgh, Indiana, residents have long loved Rivertown Ice Cream.
Take a Spin on Two Wheels
Want to feel like a kid again? Get some fresh air atop that old summer standby: the bicycle. Instead of cruising to your friend’s house to see if they can come out and play, try taking in the summer scenery on a rural stretch of road. The villages of Saint Philip and Saint Wendel west of town, plus the North Side communities of McCutchanville and Darmstadt, offer picturesque routes and challenging hills — you won’t soon forget the incline on Little Schaefer Road as you pump your pedals toward Koring Road. Looking for something in town? Rent a pair of wheels from Evansville Trails Coalition’s Upgrade Bikeshare program at nine locations in Evansville and one in Henderson, and traverse an urban bike trail, like the High-Rail Trail running parallel to U.S. 41, around the lake at Garvin Park, or on the newly paved paths circling Deaconess Sports Park. If you want company, turn to the Evansville Bicycle Club, whose members are interested in everything from punishing treks to leisurely rides. Don’t forget about a different kind of wheels: Levy electric scooter rentals are especially popular with Downtown visitors. No matter your two-wheeled adventure, please don’t forget to wear a helmet.
Race an Amphibian at Frog Follies
Engines aren’t the only things revving at the E’ville Iron Street Rods’ three-day celebration each August. Introduced as a gimmick to make the first festival stand out in 1975, frogs have become the event’s mascot, and Saturday’s bullfrog race offers a break from browsing 3,000 pre-1949 street rods on the grounds of the Vanderburgh 4-H Center. Maneuvering on their hands and knees, human racers can use only a feather to tickle their amphibian sidekick and encourage them (we’ve also witnessed some begging and pleading) to move off the starting line and closer to the finish about 12 feet away. The winner takes home a plaque and bragging rights — sorry, not their froggy friend. Worried you won’t be in sync with your amphibian partner? Former WKDQ-99.5 FM radio personality Ryan O’Bryan scored back-to-back first-place finishes in the 2022 and ‘23 celebrity frog races and shares his top tips:
Dial up the noise: “Once they say ‘go,’ I start smacking my hands on the concrete behind my frog and yelling. It’s just noise and chaos — anything to get them to move.”
Wield that feather: “I put the feather in my teeth. If the frog veers off course, cut it off with a flick of the feather. Basically, scare it a little so it jumps.”
Invest in creative distractions: “If it’s a tight finish — like in 2022 against (Channel 25 WEHT meteorologist) Wayne Hart — just raise your arms and yell like you won, and hope that somebody didn’t see it another way. I’m not saying that I didn’t win in 2022, but I bet mine won by a toenail … if frogs have toenails.”
Daytrip to New Harmony
Serenity during summer is easy to find; all it takes is a short drive northwest to New Harmony, Indiana. Take a page from the residents of this former Utopian town — which offers such a relaxed atmosphere that you can expect a golf cart to cross your path — and slow down to enjoy a hike in Harmonie State Park, explore the charming, small-town architecture Downtown or stroll through the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art. The University of Southern Indiana offers 45-minute tram tours giving an overview of historic sites and exhibits. Drop by the New Harmony Artists Guild, which serves as a hub for creativity of all kinds, or head to the Working Men’s Institute to check out its museum, library, and archive. Before sunset, wander through Harmonist Labyrinth. After dark, catch the glow of Say’s Firefly, a name tied to former resident and entomologist Thomas Say that honors Indiana’s official insect.
Evansville Living’s Top 10 Songs for an Indiana Summer Playlist
“Jack & Diane,” John Mellencamp — a quintessential Hoosier song for a lazy summer day
“Goin’ Back to Indiana,” The Jackson 5
“Paradise City,” Guns N’ Roses (with Lafayette, Indiana, born and raised front man Axl Rose) — They meant the village in Warrick County, right?
“Indiana,” Jon McLaughlin
“Can’t Fight This Feeling,” REO Speedwagon — Must sing this at the top of your lungs
“Back to Indiana,” The Elms
“Hot in Herre,” Nelly — Saint Louis-based, but it definitely applies to Hoosier heat
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” Tom Petty
“Cool Jam,” Houndmouth — The New Albany band slows it down with a song about fading love
“Small Town,” John Mellencamp
