Every year, the lineup for Bourbon & Beyond makes me shriek with excitement — and this year’s lineup was no different. Over the course of four days, 2025 festivalgoers had the opportunity to see 117 musical acts across five stages — including The Lumineers, Pixies, Alabama Shakes, Khruangbin, Goo Goo Dolls, Rilo Kiley, Third Eye Blind, Ringo Starr and much, much more.
The only catch to this year’s festivities? I’m pregnant, and the very last thing a pregnant person wants to do is stand for hours in the heat with only a Porta Potty for shade. Did I still do the unthinkable, and take my hormonal, fragile ass to a music festival? Of course I did (safely). Bourbon & Beyond is just that magical.
For the uninitiated, Bourbon & Beyond is a four-day bourbon, food and music festival at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The musical lineup typically includes a healthy mix of rock and roll, blues, country and indie acts. Between sets, fans can sip bourbon, sample dishes from dozens of vendors, check out culinary demos or even hop on rides at Kentucky Kingdom. The festival is put on by Danny Wimmer Presents, an entertainment company that produces large rock, metal and alternative music festivals throughout the United States.
Despite the fact that I couldn’t imbibe or admire the festival grounds from the amusement park rides, I was still so excited to see some of my favorite bands and artists over the course of four days.
For starters, though organizers always make it sound as though parking will be an unimaginable nightmare, I found parking spots quite easily at the expo center each day, though $40 per day did hurt a little bit. This also brings me to another point — the cost of festival passes. Prior to heading to the festival, I saw folks grumbling on Reddit (a favorite place to grumble about everything under the sun) about the costs of festival passes this year. A four-day general admission pass sets you back around $485 this year — that’s a little over $4 per act. Plus, many people are not going to fork over hundreds of dollars to catch one or two bands they love — you are forking over the money to see dozens of acts that you love. You are coming for the festival experience. Just catch Jack White at his next show and stop whining. Anywho…
This year, organizers expanded the festival grounds to include new festival stages, a second festival entrance (which made it even easier to get in each day), more shaded areas (a godsend for an overheated pregnant gal) and an air conditioned building for merchandise.
I got to the festival on Thursday just in time to see Michael Marcagi’s set on one of the main stages. Marcagi is a Cincinnati native who has found mainstream success with his hit song “Scared to Start.” His set was like a warm hug (but not too warm) and set the tone for a great day of music. I ended up sticking around the mainstages on Thursday to see an entire lineup of musical acts that I adored but had never seen live, including Jade Bird, Waxahatchee (Katie Crutchfield’s show was a festival highlight for me), TV On the Radio and Cage the Elephant. While the weather wasn’t nearly as stifling hot as it was last year, I found myself slowly melting under the afternoon sun. Even simply watching the lead singer of Cage the Elephant, Matt Shultz, dance around the stage for nearly an hour made me feel uncomfortably sweaty. Any pregnancy-induced crankiness that I felt that afternoon quickly evaporated during each amazing set.
As I stood in line for barbecue, Benson Boone backflipped onto the mainstage. The nearby crowd responded with equal parts eyerolls and excited exclamations.
The night ended (for me) with performances by Alabama Shakes and The Lumineers, two bands that I have previously seen and will always gladly see time and time again. The last time I saw Alabama Shakes was on the USS Intrepid in New York City in 2017, so it was hard to top that performance for me. Damn, does Brittany Howard know how to put on a show, though. And this show was especially sweet because the band just released new music for the first time in a decade and the excitement in the crowd was palpable. The Lumineers brought great energy to end the first night of the festival, and even invited Derek Trucks of the Tedeschi Trucks Band on to the stage for a special performance.
I also made sure to get to the festival at a reasonable time on Friday so that I didn’t miss the performance from Iron & Wine. The only disadvantage of an earlier performance during Bourbon & Beyond (beyond the soaring afternoon temperatures) is that the performers only get 30 to 40 minutes onstage. Given the time crunch, Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam) rolled through the hits.
To be perfectly honest, I lay in the shade and chugged water for a better part of Friday in fear that I wouldn’t have the stamina to last until the end of the day. Thankfully, my afternoon recuperation helped fuel me through performances by The Paper Kites and Khruangbin. I had never seen Khruangbin before, so it was a special treat to groove along with thousands of other festivalgoers.
I did not stay for the last performance of the night from Phish. I am decidedly not a Phish fan, so I used that as an excuse to get to bed at a reasonable time.
Saturday was without a doubt the best day of the festival for music lovers (or at least for me). I started off the day strong by seeing Marcy Playground perform a sing-along version of “Sex and Candy,” followed by an exhilarating performance from another ‘90s alternative band, Third Eye Blind. The ‘90s anthems were followed by anthems from previous decades by Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, which included other icons aside from Starr, including Colin Hay from Men at Work, Steve Lukather from Toto and Hamish Stuart from Average White Band. I lay on the grass and listened to many hits I recognized, played for an especially exuberant crowd. Then I headed back to the 100 Proof Stage to hear Dawes and Rilo Kiley.
The performance from Rilo Kiley was probably my favorite of the entire festival. For the first time in over a decade, the band, consisting of indie music heavyweights Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Jason Boesel and Pierre de Reeder, performed live for a crowd full of aging millennials like myself who found their refuge in their music.
Without knowing it then, I wrapped up my 2025 Bourbon & Beyond experience by seeing the Pixies in what felt like a fever dream of aching feet and sleepiness. I ended the night singing along to Pixies songs like “Debaser,” “Where Is My Mind” and “Here Comes Your Man” surrounded by new and old Pixies fans. I even put my hand on my stomach and sang a few lines to my son, imagining his music taste forming in utero (fingers crossed). It was an unforgettable end to the evening.
I woke up the next morning with the worst head cold I’ve had in a long time, so I decided standing around for hours listening to a fourth day of music might not be the best call. Regardless, I was so lucky to spend yet another unforgettable year at what I would consider one of the best music festivals in the country.