Greta Van Fleet Take Part In Burger Battle As Bourbon & Beyond Festival Returns

As live music has returned over the course of the last year, festivals have taken on renewed relevance.

With the cost of individual concerts soaring amidst inflation, festivals offer fans a unique way in which to catch a number of acts throughout a weekend at a comparatively reasonable price.

For destination festivals, the question lies in how to create an immersive experience that draws concertgoers from across the country; how to stand out in an increasingly crowded sphere.

Since 2017, Bourbon & Beyond has drilled down on Kentucky’s number one export and the presence of its famed Bourbon Trail to give fans a unique opportunity to sample rare whiskeys and Kentucky bourbons. Featuring some of America’s best chefs, the Louisville festival’s celebration of the culinary arts, spirits, live music and more makes it one of America’s most unique festival offerings.

“For Bourbon and Beyond, we haven’t had that festival since 2019. So it is, in a sense, a reintroduction of that brand to the United States as well as in the local community and state of Kentucky. We’re so excited that it’s back,” said Chamie McCurry, Chief Marketing Officer at producer and concert promoter Danny Wimmer Presents. “I think the thing that is so unique about it is that you have your music, right? Then you have the bourbon stage and a culinary stage which has some of the best chefs in the United States. The biggest bourbons in the world are featured and tasted and talked about. And then we have pop-up activations all throughout the site,” she explained. “So it really is a festival that is rooted in our love of Kentucky and Kentucky’s number one product which is bourbon. There’s not a lot of other events out there that sort of celebrate local commerce in this way. And there’s a lot of extras that are coming along with this festival that really showcase it as one of the biggest in the United States.”

Returning from pandemic-induced layoff with a newly added fourth day, Bourbon & Beyond features one of the best festival lineups in the country, kicking off tonight with headliners Jack White and Alanis Morissette, Kings Of Leon and Brandi Carlile Friday and Pearl Jam and Greta Van Fleet on Saturday before closing with Chris Stapleton and the Doobie Brothers Sunday, September 18.

While singer Eddie Vedder took the stage at the inaugural Bourbon & Beyond staging in 2017, Seattle grunge rockers Pearl Jam don’t do a lot of festival performances. Saturday night’s set will mark Pearl Jam’s first Louisville concert since a 1994 stop in support of their second album Vs. It’s only their fourth appearance ever in the state of Kentucky following 2003 and 2016 appearances in Lexington, a booking coup for Danny Wimmer Presents.

But it’s at the culinary stage where the worlds of food and music really collide. Sri Lankan-American, Kentucky born chef Sam Fore will cook beside singer songwriter Neil Finn on Saturday, chef Tiffani Faison will crack wise alongside It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stars Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney (hosts of the The Always Sunny Podcast) Saturday afternoon with singer songwriter Gin Wigmore stepping in as sous chef for chef Amanda Freitag on Sunday.

TAO Group Partner and Food Network personality chef Chris Santos, a music fan who also co-founded Blacklight Media as a hard rock imprint of vaunted heavy label Metal Blade, will play a large part in weekend events, co-hosting the culinary stage with chef Ed Lee, while judging a Friday afternoon “Louisville Cocktail Competition.”

“I met Danny Wimmer a long time ago at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville and I kind of started bugging him, poking him a little bit every year. ‘Hey, I’d love to work on festivals. I think we could do some fun interactive stuff with bands or fans or both,’” said Santos, who toured as a celebrity chef with the Mayhem festival in 2013. “We would talk about it every year – but the timing wouldn’t work out for whatever reason. Then of course the pandemic came and wiped out the festivals altogether. So this has really been a long time coming for me personally. I’m really excited,” said the chef. “And this is educational. Instead of just trotting out bands, there’s so much stuff happening behind the scenes for fans that are interested. It’s incredible the amount of extra work that gets put in to put on these activations which enhance both the bands’ and the fans’ experience at the festival that they don’t really have to do, right?”

Since its debut in 2009, Santos has appeared as a judge across 51 seasons of Food Network’s reality cooking competition Chopped.

As any regular viewer of the show is aware, Santos is a fan of a good burger, making him a perfect fit to preside over a burger battle between brothers Sam and Jake Kiszka of Michigan rock act Greta Van Fleet Saturday on the culinary stage at Bourbon & Beyond.

“A great burger, for me, has got to be juicy even if it’s well done – not that it should ever be well done but sometimes it just happens. There are tricks and ways around that to make sure you always have a juicy burger, so I’m looking for that,” said Santos, looking ahead at this weekend’s burger battle. “Actually, it’s interesting because one of the brothers will be using an impossible burger and the other will be using a traditional beef burger. We’re gonna give them a wide variety of weapons since it’s a burger battle. It’s a play on their new record which is The Battle at Garden’s Gate. So we thought ‘Battle at Bourbon & Beyond’ would be a really fun thing to do. The two brothers are competitive so they jumped at the chance to compete with each other,” said the chef.

“I’m going to kick Jake’s ass and show him that you can do soy-based protein and make it awesome,” said Greta Van Fleet bassist Sam Kiszka with a laugh, referencing his brother, Greta Van Fleet guitarist Jake Kiszka, who will be cooking a beef patty Saturday during the Bourbon & Beyond battle.

“Here’s the thing… Most people, what they do – and it’s really irritating to me – is when you go to a restaurant and you order an impossible burger, they like microwave it or do some weird thing to cook it,” Kiszka observed. “No! Just cook it like a normal burger. If it’s a replacement meat, then just cook it on a grill like you would any other burger,” said the bassist. “There’s some places that do it really well. But you have to make up for that lack of moisture. So I like to chop up a bunch of vegetables very finely – like mushrooms, peppers and onions – and blend it into the impossible meat protein and then press that [patty] together and use fire to cook it. We grew as humans cooking things with fire and that’s why it’s so good. It’s in our DNA.”

While Santos is looking forward to Friday night’s Kings Of Leon performance, Kiszka is excited for a Thursday afternoon set by singer and guitarist Hannah Wicklund. Kiszka is currently producing a new Wicklund album and the singer and guitarist has toured with Greta Van Fleet previously.

For Kiszka, a bourbon fan, this weekend marks a unique festival experience. With time off heading into and out of the Bourbon & Beyond, his band has a rare opportunity to stick around and soak in all the festival has to offer.

“I love bourbon. It’s usually my night time drink. I’m a big Basil Hayden fan. On the rider, we always put a local whiskey or bourbon. So I’ve had a bunch of good ones,” he said. “It’s a genius thing, this full sensory experience,” said the bassist of Bourbon & Beyond. “This, in theory, reminds me of growing up. We were always experimenting with new food. Dad was always studying a different kind of facet of the culinary arts. Mom was always showing us new music and teaching us about philosophy in general and the human condition – and of course everybody was drinking and playing music!” said Kiszka laughing. “So it sounds like our upbringing in short.”

As is the case in virtually any American industry right now, the cost of putting on a four day festival is on the rise. Adding a fourth day to an undertaking like Bourbon & Beyond isn’t easy. While VIP packages, camping passes and more are available, keeping admission somewhat affordable is crucial to keeping the destination model sustainable.

“The cost to produce the festival this year is more than it was pre-COVID. But our prices have not increased at the same rate that our cost of goods has. And we work endlessly to figure out how we can, as a company, absorb some of those increased costs without passing them onto the fan,” said McCurry. “Because we do know the value a festival provides. We do know that we provide a vacation to the festival fan. They’re coming and living with us for four days – and they’re from all over the country. So they’re also paying for hotel or campgrounds in addition to the passes and airfare. So we work really hard to provide that value back to our fans,” she said.

“The festival experience is everything for us. We know that the bands are typically the driver. That’s what gets fans there. But once they’re there, it’s really important for us that we’re providing them with things to do between sets – ways to be entertained outside of the music,” McCurrry said. “Bourbon & Beyond in particular, there’s so much to do at that festival outside of the three stages where there’s music that it really becomes this experience that you can share with friends and family who maybe aren’t into the same type of music that you are – but that like the kind of experiences that you have. We’re able to provide something where someone who loves country and someone who loves rock and somebody who loves bluegrass can all come to the same place and be serviced with a great time,” she said. “The experience is becoming more and more important.”