Railbird

 

2025 turned out be a year of leaning into live music experiences in and around Kentucky. After we realized the prom/Tyler Childers show conflict we purchased one-day passes for Railbird, an outdoor music festival held on the infield of the Red Mile Racetrack in Lexington. It's a two-day event with big-name headliners and smaller bands at stages around the venue. In fact, one of Sarah's co-workers was on a side stage at the beginning of the day with his band Mojo Thunder. We were excited to see them play and got there early to catch the show knowing we had a long day ahead.

 

This time it was Callie who got to bring a friend since she missed out on the Tyler Childers show. This is the seventh year of the festival and it has quickly become a favorite for many in the area, including high schoolers. In other words, Callie had plenty of friends who were already planning to go and they had a great day going from stage to stage and hanging out. And because the festival takes place in early June the weather was great and they could all display their summer dresses and cowboy boots.

 

It's been a minute since John and Sarah have been to an all day festival and it is quite possible our endurance is not what it used to be. Fortunately the grass was dry and the ground reasonably soft. We could find a place to sit and enjoy the tunes. John's main complaint was that too many people continue to smoke cigarettes and even an outdoor venue doesn't help. He ended up with a cough for several days after. In short, we are old and don't know how we spent so much time in smoky bars in the 1990s during and after college. Thank God for smoking bans.

 

The headliner that Sunday night was Jelly Roll. We ended up knowing more songs than we expected to and he brings a lot of energy and passion to the stage. We were hoping he was bring out the headliner from the night before for a song or two but no such luck. Still, it's hard to have a bad time listening to live music.