Ailing Kentucky distilleries: Come to Bourbon & Beyond for music, stay for whiskey
A quarter-million music fans are about to descend on Louisville. And while they may be coming for Sturgill Simpson, there’s a good chance they’ll get taste of Kentucky’s finest while they are there.
Kentucky distilleries are going all out to woo people from all over the U.S. and the world who are flocking to Louisville on Sept. 11-14 for the Bourbon & Beyond music festival, now 35% larger this year with 5 stages and more than 120 artists.
Now in its seventh year, the four-day Bourbon & Beyond bills itself as the world’s largest bourbon, food and music festival. This year’s festival is larger than ever and will be followed a week later by its big brother, the 10th annual Louder Than Life rock/heavy metal music festival on the same Highland Festival Grounds site at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Both are put on by Danny Wimmer Presents, which recently signed a 10-year commitment to run through 2035.
This year’s Bourbon & Beyond headliners include Kentucky-born Simpson, Phish, Noah Kahan and The Lumineers.
“They’re trying to make themselves relevant to kind of the next generation millennials and Gen Z,” said Cordell Lawrence of Eastern Light Distilling, which will use its booth as a platform for two small, non-distilling producers, Safai Bourbon and New Era, recently launched brands that are looking to build an audience in an authentic way.
Eastern Light is a contract distiller (its $60 million facility is under construction in Morehead) that helps new brands get to market.
Lawrence, who is also president this year of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, said one big difference between that event in Bardstown and the music scene is age: The average age of the Bourbon & Beyond crowd is 34-45 — much younger than the typical Kentucky Bourbon Festival-goer.
Eastern Light master distiller Caleb Killburn said bourbon festival attendees are also much more experienced consumers, already infatuated with the industry.
“For many of the people who come to Bourbon & Beyond, this may be one of their early experiences getting introduced to the spirit,” he said. “Bourbon & Beyond is an opportunity to introduce them and help make them believers. ... It is almost their ‘first date’ with bourbon. You want it to be fun, you want it to be exciting.”
This kind of exposure doesn’t come cheap: Brands pay $50,000 to $75,000 in sponsorship fees and activation fees. And that doesn’t include the actual bourbon, which the patrons purchase separately.
But it’s been worth it, Lawrence said. Last year Eastern Light helped to promote Oxmoor Bourbon, and that went so well Eastern Light expanded its footprint this year, he said.
“It’s helping to promote some of these brands that really need a platform and need to be advocated for now,” Kilburn said. “All of a sudden, we give them an opportunity to try something that they may not be able to see in their home market. You can go to a lot of places and get some of those mass marketed brands. What we can do is help give them access to something that they may be trying, truly, for the first time.”
Tickets to the event start at just under $500 for a four-day general admission pass. Want to bring a lawn chair? That’s another $15 each day.
The Angel’s Envy Beyond VIP area is sold out at $2,241 per person, and it’s $10 just to join the wait list.
What bourbons will be available at Bourbon & Beyond?
Half of the 26 “experiences” at Bourbon & Beyond are tied to bourbon. And all will be looking to pull in new fans and build brand loyalty.
At least three major whiskey makers who have recently reported slipping sales will be pouring it on with a heavy hand.
- Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey (sales flat this summer) will have the Jack Daniel’s Char House and the Jack Daniel’s Sports Bar, where fans can try the new Jack Daniel’s Blackberry.
- Beam Suntory (overall sales down more than 2%) will have experiences involving Knob Creek and Maker’s Mark as well as the Jim Beam Black Tiki Barrel Bar.
- Diageo will also have a Bulleit (sales down 7%) experience this year, with cocktails such as Blueberry Lavender Iced Tea, and hopes to encourage visitors to head down the road to the Shelbyville distillery for a visit.
There’s also the Hunter’s Club with vintage and rare pours, and Pappy & Co. (the merch, not the bourbon itself) will have its own VIP area and experience. Musician Derek Trucks will debut a collaborative release with festival promoter Danny Wimmer, of Ass Pocket Whiskey No. 4: The Search.
Angel’s Envy’s Beyond VIP area is the top of the pyramid of elevated experiences.
Meanwhile, Kroger is sponsoring the Kroger Big Bourbon Bar as well as the Fork & Flask Stage spotlighting chefs, master distillers, bourbon panels and whiskey podcasters.
And in an off-premise tie-in, comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan will be signing bottles of his Fathertime Bourbon, which also will be featured at Bourbon & Beyond, at a nearby Louisville Kroger store on Sept. 14.
Kroger spokeswoman Jessica Sharp said the Bourbon & Beyond festival has been “especially meaningful” for the company.
“We’re bringing exclusive barrel picks curated for our customers, pairing them with incredible local food and Kroger favorites, and connecting fans directly with the stories behind the bottles,” Sharp said via email. “For us, it’s not just about pouring whiskey. It’s about creating moments people will remember long after the festival ends. A win is when someone discovers a new bourbon, enjoys a pairing that surprises them, and leaves saying, ‘I had the best bourbon experience at Bourbon & Beyond, and I can’t wait to find that bottle at Kroger.’ That’s when we know we’ve done our job.”
And if that won’t be enough to drive the point home, on Sunday, Sept. 14, the festival again will host the “World’s Biggest Toast” to Kentucky Bourbon, streamed live by the Kentucky Bourbon Trail from the OAK Stage with Angel’s Envy master distiller Owen Martin toasting with their newest release, Angel’s Envy Triple Oak.
What music brings to bourbon marketing
While the association between music and bourbon isn’t new, it has become more intense of late.
“For Jack Daniel’s, we’ve had a long-standing history with music, dating back to Mr. Jack Daniel himself, who formed the Silver Cornet Band in 1892. We want to create immersive and memorable experiences at music festivals as they attract a large, diverse and engaged audience, particularly among younger generations,” said brand spokesman Svend Jansen. “This provides a great opportunity for Jack Daniel’s to reach its target consumer base and create a positive brand association.”
Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting hinted at his company’s strategy in the recent earnings call, where he mentioned music sponsorships.
“The long-term growth and resilience of the Jack Daniel’s Family of Brands is also fueled by strategic relationships such as our McLaren Formula One and music sponsorships,” Whiting said. “We’re also leveraging an evolved, on-premise strategy, and our new media campaign to engage a new generation of legal drinking age consumers, while remaining intently focused on retaining our core consumers.
“We’ve gotten much bigger, back into music again. ... We never really left it, but we were focusing on that quite a bit more.”
Whiting cited Jack’s Garage, music-focused events done in partnership with McLaren’s Formula 1 team at races in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas with performers including Shaboozey.
Yes, the same Shaboozey who had a monster hit last summer with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” with a chorus that included the lyrics, “Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey; They know me and Jack Daniеl’s got a history,” is now appearing at Jack Daniel’s-sponsored events.
A coincidence? Kind of, but not exactly. Jack Daniel’s also has been hosting “songwriters camps” three times a year in Lynchburg, Va. Although Shaboozey wasn’t at the camp, the events have kept the Jack Daniel’s flavor in the Nashville songwriting water.
Does all this work? Apparently so.
“The number of mentions we’re getting in songs has gone up meaningfully, like tripled and quadrupled kind of thing,” he said, especially in country music. “We’ve sort of within the country world taken off. ... So we’re pulling all the right triggers.”
But does it translate into sales?
“We see significant positive shifts in brand performance over the last year, in particular among legal drinking age to age 34 consumers, but also among consumers age 35 and above,” Whiting said. “These positive shifts across both age categories affirm that our strategic actions are reaching new consumers while not alienating those who have been friends of Jack for years.”
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
