Railbird Festival to ‘Take a Pause’ in 2022, Change Venues in 2023

May 18, 2022 at 10:37 am

At a hot Railbird last year, festival goers complained of long lines for water. Photo by Tracy May

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Railbird Festival, a music festival that normally takes place during August at Keeneland racecourse in Lexington, won’t happen this year.

In a social media post yesterday, Festival officials wrote, “Hello from Railbird! Thanks to all of you who joined us for Railbird Festival in 2021. We have listened and taken your feedback to heart and are working hard behind the scenes to create an exceptional experience for the next edition of the festival.”

They continued, “Railbird will take a pause in 2022, however, we are excited to share that you can mark your calendars for Railbird Festival 2023 taking place June 3-4, 2023 at its new venue, Red Mile Gaming & Racing, located in the heart of Downtown Lexington!”

According to LEX18, many guests were frustrated with the long lines (including lines for water) at last year’s Railbird.

The Festival issued them a statement, which read:

"Providing a safe and enjoyable festival experience to our patrons and staff are our top priorities. Day one of Railbird did not live up to our standards. As a result, we collaborated across all of our teams and were pleased with the coordinated response to develop and implement a number of needed and important changes overnight to improve the experience for patrons on the second day of the festival.

These changes included:

Additional water refill stations were placed on festival grounds.

More than 50,000 bottles of water were distributed at several points throughout the festival to attendees.

Every patron was allowed to bring in their own factory-sealed water bottle to the festival, in addition to a reusable bottle to refill.

Changes were made to improve entry processes and concessions operations to move lines more efficiently."

Performers at last year’s Railbird included Dave Matthews Band, My Morning Jacket, Jason Isbell, and Leon Bridges.

You can sign up for updates on next year’s Railbird at this link.

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