 Citizens could enjoy Sunday picnics and fashionable strolls, evening concerts, fireworks displays, balloon ascensions, plays, and much more.The first known production of a Shakespeare play in the park took place on July 1, 1895 when a national touring company presented "As You Like It" in the area where the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival's stage is now located.During the Southern Exposition in 1883, 13 of the park's were temporarily "roofed in" and used to showcase Thomas Edison's light bulb, one of the first large-scale public displays of the light bulb in the world.