LOUISVILLE, Ky. — MindFEST returned to Louisville for the third year.

The free festival aims to break the stigma around mental health, with this year’s festival focusing on veterans’ mental health. 

Iesha Richards is a U.S. Air Force veteran and served the country for four years, including a year and half at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

“That’s where they would send all of the bodies back for people who have gone to war and deceased, basically killed in combat,” Richards said. “They sent all of the bodies there rather than doing autopsy, the mortuary affairs there.”

She signed up for the Air Force when she was only 17 years old. World events can often trigger or bring up the memories of her service, she said. 

“It’s a heavy weight to carry many years later,” she said. “I can still remember the people that I saw, the pictures that were in their pockets of their family members, so it’s a vivid memory for myself.”

Now, she is a therapist at Core Counseling in Louisville. She talks about mental health, so she said it serves as a reminder to make sure she is practicing what she preaches.

“Journaling, getting all those thoughts and emotions, just not taking it for granted that it’s an ongoing practice,” Richards said. 

The 2024 MindFEST had yoga, music, vendors and a panel of veterans who discussed their mental health challenges and the importance of addressing them.

“We’re working on breaking the stigma by putting ourselves out there and just talking about our experiences of our own mental health, how we were impacted by our services and, since then, how we bounce back,” she said.

The festival comes at the close of Mental Health Awareness Month.