Through the years
Since 2018 Expansion has been providing a platform for both bands and visual artists to showcase their craft. From our humble beginnings at venues like Al’s Bar and Cosmic Charlie’s, Expansion has grown to span multiple days and venues with indoor and outdoor stages.
2018
The first Expansion spanned two days at Al’s Bar and The Burl with headliners SPACEFACE and Brothers Griiin (both of The Flaming Lips) joined by local standouts Idiot Glee, Jovontes and more. Liquid light and projection-mapping artists Silver Cord Cinema and Psensibil helped establish Expansion as equal parts visual art experience and music festival.
2019
Expansion was again held across two days, this time splitting between Cosmic Charlie’s 2.0 (RIP) and The Burl, and welcoming DEAKIN (Animal Collective), Sugar Candy Mountain, Lexington’s own Sweet Country Meat Boys and more. In addition to 2018’s visual artists, yovozol helped further expand the fest’s visual experience.
2021
After taking 2020 off due to the pandemic, Expansion returned in 2021. Utilizing The Burl Outdoor Stage as well as the venue’s indoor space, Expansion hosted powerhouse psych rockers Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Meatbodies, Levitation Room and others. This marked the first year with more visual artists than bands. 2021’s scheduling provided non-stop music with shows alternating between The Burl Outdoors and The Burl (indoor) Stage.
2022
Expansion 2022 saw the biggest acts to headline the festival including The Black Angels, Allah-Las, Death Valley Girls and more. With the help of 21c, this year marked the festival’s most art-centric showcase with the inclusion of SORA Contemporary Circus and a massive Art Immersion Room with curated visuals from Captain Lemo.
2023
The idea for Expansion was always to grow to a multi-day, multi-venue experience. 2023 marked the biggest leap forward in achieving that with the introduction of Psychedelic Cinema at The Kentucky Theatre showing King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Chunky Shrapnel film + the video works of Robert Beatty (Thursday), followed by a very special Dream Wishes Variety Show at 21c (Friday) which was free and open to the public thanks to 88.1 WRFL. On Saturday, Expansion returned The Burl Outdoors and featured acts like TOBACCO, King Buffalo, Liz Cooper with live visuals by Ed Sunspot, Super Nuclear, Liquified, Chud Lights and more.