I’m not sure if this is everybody playing next year’s Legalize Lex, or just Legalize, at Al’s Bar in Lexington, Kentucky. This year had 17, and this is 14 bands, so if they’ve pared it down a bit, fair enough, but it’s also next April, so if they’re allowing for a couple others to get on board or for plans to chance, also fair enough. Note that Hashtronaut, Crop, Swamp Hawk, Shi and Veilcaste played this year’s Legalize, and a couple repeats year to year, friends and associated acts, is part of building a festival culture as well.

One assumes Spotlights will headline, and Hashtronaut and Crop would seem to have moved up the bill as well. Crystal Spiders will surely be awesome, and Fairie Ring and Doomsday Profit and Insomniac and well basically I’m just listing names at this point because I think the bands are cool and somehow you’re just supposed to get that reading. Come on, man. You were at that Insomniac gig in Brooklyn, right? Talking to myself and Gavin Zollo because I don’t think Ron actually reads. Ha. I don’t think anybody reads.

I digress. Driving untold hours to stand around a place to see bands? Sounds right up my alley. Not even joking:

Legalize Lex 2026

Hello everyone, we had a couple of errors on the initial release post and we want to make sure we represent all our bands the best we can, so we’re reposting this bad boi! We definitely appreciated all of your likes and comments the first time around, your support means the world to us. If you feel so inclined, please share this post so we can keep spreading the word!
Year 3 is gonna be a banger! Excited to see you all!

Lineup:
Spotlights
Hashtronaut
Crop
Crystal Spiders
Swamp Hawk
Faerie Ring
Uga Buga
Insomniac
Doomsday Profit
Veilcaste
Dead Vibes Ensemble
Shi
Acromancer
Blonde Cauldron

Presale Tickets Available Now! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legalize-2026-tickets-1927381783799

https://www.instagram.com/legalize_lex
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Spotlights, Alchemy for the Dead (2023)

So here’s a moment where I’m just going to be honest with you. I’m pretty sure this lineup has been announced for a bit. If you’ve been to Legalize Lex and you accordingly keep up with the Lexington, Kentucky-based two-dayer set for April 18-19 on social media, maybe you’ve seen that the likes of Horseburner, Lo-Pan, Temple of the Fuzz Witch and Hashtronaut are making the trip. Fine. So maybe it’s not ‘breaking news,’ as much as anything in the heavy underground short of Bobby Liebling memes could hope to be. I haven’t posted the lineup here yet, so even if it’s not new to you, it’s new to me. Thanks for indulging my late-to-the-party ass once again.

Crop are the affiliated act here, and they seem to be setting up the fest as a regional nexus, pulling bands from all cardinal directions to solidify what’s turned out to be a pretty banger bill. Reminds me of an old Emissions lineup, and not just because Rebreather are there, but also in some of the stoner-sludge later down the poster. The day-split is out — you can see the Saturday is more packed than the Friday, as it should be, but the first night is by no means lacking — and the lineups are rad. I won’t be there to see it, but if you get to go, I’d expect it to be a party as much as a festival. Certainly that’s the vibe I’m getting from the poster.

The day-split came down the PR wire as follows:

LEGALIZE Announces Full Lineup and Set Times for its 2nd Annual Festival in Lexington KY!

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legalize-lex-tickets-1128795390399

Friday, 4/18
Doors: 6:00 p.m., show 7:00 p.m.

Temple of the Fuzz Witch
Hashtronaut
Swamp Hawk
Weed Demon
Shi
Pond Digger

Saturday, 4/19
Doors 4:20 p.m., show 5:00 p.m.

Horseburner
Lo-Pan
Rebreather
Crop
Friendship Commanders
Blind Scryer
Veilcaste
Radian
Stormtoker
Star Viper
Sympathy Jar

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legalize-lex-tickets-1128795390399

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https://www.instagram.com/legalize_lex

Lo-Pan, “Northern Eyes” visualizer