The conversation that led up to entering the venue was a complicated mix of both excitement and anxiety. As my friend Sadie Eichenberger and I’s first music festival, we not only had no idea what to expect concert wise, but also how to actually get inside.
Small cliques worked their way into one big line and then dispersed across the parking lot, some with a specific artist in mind and others who were just there for the company. For Sadie and I, the goal at the forefront of our mind was to find a place to sit and relax while we waited for an artist we might know.
Having come straight from school, we laid out a towel and rested our eyes to the guitar strums of Waxahatchee, an “American indie music project” created by Katie Crutchfield.
By the end of the weekend, I’d experienced everything from classic 90s hits to up and coming pop artists, but even as I left the venue for the final time, the days didn’t bleed together into vague sounds and muted emotions ― in fact, each remains clear in their music and lessons three weeks later.
The common thread I found for all four days can each be summed up in just a phrase, so, here are the lessons learned from the artists and concert-goers of Bourbon and Beyond 2025.
Day 1 – A Strong Support System
The gentle guitar of Waxahatchee that had lulled us into our nap was broken quite suddenly by the entrance of the next band, TV On The Radio, a rock band featuring numerous political songs and statements.
Exclamations that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “kidnapping our neighbors” and echoing calls of “free, free Palestine” made the event momentous. The lead singer, Tunde Adebimpe, emphasized with each rallying cry the importance and strength of our joined efforts, which led into their last song, centered around fascism and the current government in the U.S.
But if we thought the energy on stage was high with their powerful statements and sense of purpose, Cage the Elephant blew us away with an electric presence.
From the moment lead singer Matt Shultz leaped into frame, the camera rarely left him ― whether he was sprinting to the other side of the stage or emphasizing each lyric with an explosion of flames, there was always something going on. And yet, he never missed a word or note.
As the set came to a close, Shultz expressed gratitude at the crowd’s participation and how welcomed he felt “back in his home state.” Though he grew up in Bowling Green, the strong community of people who had come from across the country solidified his love for Louisville; he was one of the few singers to pronounce the city correctly.
With one last explosion of fire, Cage the Elephant exited, followed by a mass rush to get to the Oak stage for the highly anticipated next act: Benson Boone.
If someone in the audience frequented social media, their first impression of Boone was likely his song, “Mystical Magical,” where the often teased artist sings lyrics like “moonbeam ice cream, taking off your blue jeans” in a sopranic voice. The long-running joke made Boone’s name recognizable to many caught browsing the Thursday afternoon setlist, but other fans ― Sadie included ― wanted to hear his beautiful, if largely unknown, vocals.
Within a couple songs, the crowd was shouting lyrics with Boone and cheering for each piano-based backflip. Soon, however, he took a moment to reflect on how he got to where he is.
Boone thanked his father, Nate Boone, fervently for believing in and supporting his musical dreams as a kid and well into adulthood.
When he appeared on The Zach Sang Show in 2022, Boone expanded on the role of his parents in pursuing a solo music career, stating that “[t]hey just believed in me, and I think it was because they believed in me that I really thought I could do it.”
In a 2024 interview with iHeartMedia’s Kayla Thomas on 102.7 KIISFM, he further emphasized his gratitude toward his parents: “Truly, I would actually be nowhere without [them].”
And then there he was in 2025, singing at the top of his voice on the Oak Stage, headlining at Bourbon and Beyond. Despite his newfound fame, he never forgot what it took to get there.
With his final song, “Beautiful Things,” he bade the crowd goodnight, and jogged off stage.
Sadie and I moved closer to the Oak stage, intent to see the Lumineers up close. After dodging a couple drunken fans, we reached a comfortable spot and allowed the electric yet soothing music of Alabama Shakes, the next act on the Barrel stage, to envelop us.
At 9:15, the Lumineers, an American alternative folk band, entered with raucous applause and jumped right into “Same Old Song.” At the end of each song, the lead singer, Wesley Schultz, shared an anecdote that led to its creation.
The anecdotes soon turned into advice rightly learned. Right before “You’re All I Got,” Schultz shouted to the crowd that “you won’t make it far by yourself,” and to appreciate who you experience life with. As the introduction to “Asshole,” he instructed the crowd to “welcome those who say the wrong thing at the wrong time,” as a “toast to all the assholes.”
Soon, the night came to a close and the final notes rang into the air, and the crowd returned home to support systems of their own.
Day 2 – Growing Together
On the afternoon of the second day, the gentle music that echoed through the Barrel stage met me as I cleared the metal detectors and the wristband machines. Today, I was by myself as Sadie hadn’t found an interest in any of the bands listed.
For me, though, the headliner kept me grounded.
Phish, an American rock jam band, was the act of the night, and I couldn’t remember a day going by since I was born that one of their songs hadn’t been on the TV, a speaker or even just sang by one of my parents.
After seeing his first show in the late 80s, my dad has been a diehard fan, and my mom joined him shortly after they started dating at a June 2004 show in Noblesville, Indiana.
I wasn’t as quick to become a fan, though. It became a running joke in my family that they’d “tired me out too early” with Phish, and the only times I ever listened to it was if it was on in the kitchen while my mom was cooking or when my dad played it on the drive to school. If someone would have told me five years ago that I would be going to one of the days at Bourbon and Beyond solely to see Phish perform in Louisville for the first time in over 30 years, I wouldn’t have believed them.
But then, here I was, four and a half hours early and eager to listen.
And I wasn’t the only one there with family connections to the band ― I was soon joined by Brooklyn Goodwin, another senior at duPont Manual High School.
After wearing one of my mom’s Phish shirts to a lacrosse practice, Brooklyn had mentioned that her mother used to follow the band around in 1998. Seven months later, we were attending the same show.
But first, there was one other band on her list to see. Like I’d grown up with Phish, Brooklyn had spent her childhood with The Paper Kites, an Australian indie and folk rock band set to perform on the 100 Proof stage.
We sat and chatted as the ending sounds of the 502s settled over the crowd and the slow acoustic guitar of country singer Colbie Caillat filled the air. Though I didn’t pay much attention to the words being sung, one of her anecdotes caught my attention.
“How many of you remember MySpace?” Caillat asked the crowd, who responded with a roar of cheers. “I got my start on MySpace when I was 19.”
MySpace, an early example of social media, was “the first social network to reach a global audience and [have] a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music,” according to Wikipedia.
For Caillat, this was just what she needed, and 21 years later, she still performs for the loving crowd before her. She finished her set with her song “Brighter Than the Sun,” and left the stage with an even brighter smile.
After a couple minutes of in-between music radiating from the speakers, The Paper Kites appeared, the opening notes of “Green Valleys,” already playing from their instruments.
The gentle vocals and guitar settled us into a comfortable silence, only broken by an occasional comment about passing shirts we liked. Though I thought I had never heard of the band, as their famous song “Bloom” played, I could vaguely remember the Woodland album cover that my mom would turn on occasionally.
Ending with “Electric Indigo,” the band stepped off the stage. We took this as our cue to head back to Oak and Barrel, splitting to join our families for the show’s start.
At 8:25, Phish entered the Barrel stage, blue spotlights and smoke clouding the night air. The classic jam-band guitar strums and intense percussion beat of their 2002 hit “46 Days” started to the immediate recognition of over half the crowd ― myself included.
For more than three hours, the band played well-known crowd pleasers, covers and some songs the band hadn’t played in decades. Though I only knew half of the songs word for word, the pure enjoyment of the crowd ― many who had followed Phish for many years ― made every moment of the experience fun.
Day 3 – “All of Us Together As One”
The Saturday shows brought in the most energetic crowd yet; with school out and a good night’s sleep behind them, the number of teens increased dramatically, adding a new perspective for onlookers.
I arrived in the middle of Third Eye Blind, an American alternative rock band, who I recognized from hits like “Jumper” and “Semi-Charmed Life.”
Just minutes after I’d joined a group of friends close to the stage, Stephan Jenkins, the band’s lead singer, began repeating one phrase over and over until the crowd joined in: “All of us, together as one.”
In between each song, Jenkins emphasized the importance of each person in the crowd, calling for people to put an arm around someone they don’t know or tell someone they’re glad they came.
All around me, I noticed people hanging out in ways I hadn’t before ― just right of the main walkway, a group of eight people were playing with a hacky sack. Others struck up conversations with strangers, joined together by their love for the band.
After a final refrain of “Together As One,” the band left the stage, followed by the musician my brother was most excited for as an avid Beatles fan: Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band.
To my surprise, the band sang hits from not just the Beatles, but Men at Work and Toto, as well. But it wasn’t until they began their 1993 hit “With a Little Help From My Friends” that the crowd uniformly sang along. Some of the friends, in this case, included Jack White and Sammy Rae, of The White Stripes and Sammy Rae & the Friends, respectively. Both performed on Saturday ― though The White Stripes disbanded in 2011, so White performed as a solo artist.
But Third Eye Blind and Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band weren’t the only artists to engage the crowd as a unit ― Vance Joy also achieved this in his own way.
As one of the artists I’d grown up listening to, I was overjoyed by the fact that he played two of my favorites ― “Mess is Mine” and “Fire and the Flood” ― within minutes of entering the stage. But it wasn’t just the well-known songs that rallied the crowd; in the middle of the performance, Joy taught everyone a call and repeat for the chorus of one of his unreleased songs, a young couple got engaged during “I’m With You” and a cover of KISS’s “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” united fans of all generations.
Some bands, however, joined people together long before their performance even began. For Sadie, Sammy Rae & the Friends represented more to her than just good music; one of their songs was the reason she and her girlfriend began dating.
After recommending “Talk It Up” to Elyse Wilcox, a senior at Ballard High School, who had been listening to a different Rae song at the time, the two saw it as a sign and started dating soon after.
With their homemade sign in hand ― reading “Your Music Brought Us Together” and decorated with a collage of the two ― Sadie and Elyse pressed to the front of the crowd and held it up high.
Coming into the show, I didn’t know a single lyric to a single song, and yet the energy that Rae and her band brought to the stage blew me away. Whether it was Rae’s perfected vocal flips, vibrant stage presence or encouraging messages woven into the songs, the performance kept me rooted to my spot.
Their finale, “Coming Home Song,” didn’t end with its last note, but rather with the message that Rae left with the audience. She explained that Bourbon and Beyond is about coming together, being present with each other and leaving with a smile.
“So go tell someone you’re glad they’re here,” Rae said. “Tell someone you want to be friends.”
Day 4 – Savoring the Moment
On the last day of the festival, “Noah Kahan” was the only name that left anyone’s mouth. Whether they’d been one of his original fans or learned of him with his 2022 release of “Stick Season,” the anticipation for his performance grew by the second.
In the summer after my freshman year, I heard “Call Your Mom” for the first time. I’m not normally one to sit down and listen to music that I know has sad undertones, but the raw vocals and addictive guitar with which he sang and played had me hooked from the first note.
For almost three years I listened religiously to his music, and seeing his name as a headliner was a deciding factor in obtaining tickets. Though I loved so many of the performers that I’d already seen, a show becomes even more enjoyable when I know the majority of the songs being played.
Right before he took to the stage, I told my friend that I hoped he would play “All My Love,” and moments after he appeared, the familiar guitar plucking began. I’d played the song so much that I’d gotten tired of it and hadn’t heard it in almost a year, but the lyrics fell from my mouth as clearly as if I’d written them.
“I see a lot of happy and joyful faces and I gotta be honest with you, it’s pissing me off,” Kahan said once he’d finished the song. “My goal is to wipe those smiles right off your face tonight. Let’s get started.”
With topics ranging from teenage alcoholism to questions of mortality, Kahan’s music touches on fears and experiences spanning all generations. With each heartfelt song ― though often followed by a joke about the extreme heat of the evening ― I could see the crowd’s mood changing from elation to sentiment.
Some were old, others unreleased, and on his signature songs, he adlibbed some of the lyrics to fit the scene; lines like “I’d f*****g die for you Bourbon and Beyond!” in “Dial Drunk” and “You’re gonna go far, Louisville, Kentucky, yeah you are!” in “You’re Gonna Go Far” were most prominent.
The notes of nostalgia came to a climax as the opening to “Stick Season” strummed across the speakers. Centered around a feeling of stagnance after a breakup, the song was streamed over 200 million on YouTube Music and over a billion and a half on Spotify.
So as to not get stuck in too much traffic, my group and I began moving toward the exit, but the final lines could still be heard loud and clear over the din.
I know for myself and others, the sights and sounds of Bourbon and Beyond 2025 will remain in our memories for many years to come.
