As I mentioned in my last post, I went to two music festivals in back to back weekends in the exact same place. Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life were put on by the same company at the Highland Festival Grounds in Lexington, Kentucky. They had two very different lineups but we will get to LTL on Monday, for now we are going to talk about Bourbon & Beyond.

I was working for Sailor Jerry photographing their tattoo activations so I didn’t see much of the music, but there were a few artists I was excited to see. I got to see Blondie and Duran Duran which was really cool. I am not exactly a Killers or Bruno Mars fan but they both put on great shows, and Spoon and the Black Keys are always enjoyable. Unfortunately I missed seeing Buddy Guy and Wayne Newton but they would have been awesome to see. I didn’t photograph any of the music because I was working for SJ and didn’t apply for a press pass, but I did for LTL so I should have some decent band shots for you next week. 

The bands were so eclectic and the crowd was as well. I don’t think I have ever been to a festival with such a differing variety of artists and headliners where you had Brandi Carlile playing after Train with a bluegrass band in between. The festival was themed around drinking more than anything, which is pretty obvious with Bourbon in the name, but there were a ton of booths from different alcohol brands, like my crew over at Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. There was also an element of food and there were a lot of celebrity chefs there including my friend Chris Santos. The SJ booth was on the opposite side of the festival from the food demonstrations so I didn’t catch mutch of that, but there were a ton of Top Chef alums there who I wish I got to photograph cause it’s literally my favorite TV show of all time. 

So I don’t have a huge gallery for you as far as music festivals go, because I was focused on my SJ stuff, but it’s still 100 photos for you to click through. I think there’s some fun stuff in there just because of the wide variety of people who attended. As I mentioned I will be back Monday with the Louder Than Life photos, and I feel like you guys are going to enjoy those. 

Now click here to see all my crowd shots from 2023 Bourbon & Beyond in Lexington, KY.

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