Bourbon & Beyond draws thousands of fans for opening day at the Expo Center

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Bourbon and Beyond is back and it's packed. But it's not just about what's happening inside the gates.

The four-day long festival is expected to bring in tens of thousands of fans and millions of dollars for the city.

There’s giant stage screens, shaded areas and food tents in nearly every direction you look.

IMAGES | Day 1 of Bourbon & Beyond 2024 at the Kentucky Expo Center

Check out these snaps from the first day of the 2024 Bourbon & Beyond Festival at the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center.

The gates at the Highland Festival Grounds near the Kentucky Exposition Center opened at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Festival organizers expected over 44,000 people to attend Bourbon & Beyond on the first day alone.

"You see incredibly new artists that are up and coming and the neat thing is to see their progression over the years," festival goer Heather Hayden said. "We've seen several artists that you know made it big based on stuff like this."

Hayden has been attending since 2017 and is happy to listen to all the new artists because she likes watching their careers flourish year after year after performing here in Louisville.

The annual four-day festival will be followed by the four-day Louder Than Life festival, bringing in an estimated 375,000 people together to see over 230 artists.

WDRB bumped into George Carvalho as he made his way to the main stage. It’s his first trip to Louisville and his first Bourbon and Beyond.

He is prepared to have fun and eats lots of food with his friends all four days.

“Everybody’s so friendly that lives here," Carvalho said. "Every gas station, every grocery store that we stopped at, everyone’s just talking to us. They know why we are here. They see the RV and they know. They just tell us about how much fun it is. And everybody is so friendly. That’s what I’m taking in so far in 24 hours.”

The two festivals are expected to have an economic impact of over $33 million in Louisville.

If you plan to attend, general parking is $40 per day at the Expo Center.

Drivers can enter through Gates 2, 4 or 6.

Single-day General Admission tickets were still available on Friday, and more single-day tickets were recently made available for Saturday.

For everything you need to know before attending, click here.

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