CMA Fest grows into Nashville music, financial superstar
A straw hat and a sunburn is the annual unofficial uniform of CMA Music Festival — Nashville’s four-day homage to country music that starts this week and is expected to lure more than 85,000 fans daily to the Lower Broadway area and Nissan Stadium.
With seven free and four paid music stages of varying sizes, sounds of electric guitars, twanging vocals and cheering crowds will mingle in the muggy summer air as festivalgoers in fanny packs shuffle between performances from more than 400 country music singers.
This year, the CMA Music Festival, set for Thursday-June 12, will offer performances ranging from unknown newcomers to popular breakthrough artists, consistent contemporary hit makers, heritage acts and country’s top stars.
“We sell this festival out earlier and earlier every year without a single artist name announced because fans know the quality of the show,” said John Esposito, chairman of the CMA Board and chairman and CEO of Warner Music Nashville. “You can’t deny the power of the draw of the genre.”
CMA Music Festival is a financial windfall for the city of Nashville, last year attracting more than $60 million in visitor spending, said festival and area tourism officials. For country music fans, the festival offers opportunities to meet their favorite artists and see them perform — in many cases for free. For artists CMA Fest is a chance to build connections with the genre’s most loyal fans, as well as spend time with their most avid followers.
“With this event, you have a town full of people who are crazy about country music,” said ‘90s country star John Berry, who has appeared at 16 of the past 20 CMA Music Festivals. “You’d have to be crazy about it to put up with the weather and the crowds. As a singer, you’d be crazy not to take advantage of that moment when there’s that much focus and that much appreciation for what we do.”
CMA Fest reveals lineup for free Ascend Amphitheater stages
Highlights from the more than 400 singers performing at this year’s CMA Music Festival include Chris Young, who will kick off CMA Music Festival Wednesday at Ascend Amphitheater and play Saturday night at Nissan Stadium. Other performers include Kelsea Ballerini, Cam, Carrie Underwood, Brandy Clark, Blake Shelton, Brett Eldredge, Chris Stapleton, Dierks Bentley, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Sam Hunt and Thomas Rhett. The artists play the festival for free and proceeds go to the Country Music Association’s CMA Foundation, which has donated $10 million in 10 years to Metro Nashville Public Schools.
"We have instruments in K-8th grades now in Nashville because of Music Fest, and it's nothing I forget or take lightly," said Country Music Association's Chief Executive Officer Sarah Trahern. "I really think the lasting impact this music community can have on Nashville is through the music education effort. We get to take in a really fun event, highlight some great music, celebrate our city, and then the effects of that are lasting throughout the year and years to come."
CMA Fest has always been fan-driven — just not as expansive as it is today. The festival, originally called Fan Fair, started in 1972 and brought about 5,000 fans to Nashville Municipal Auditorium. From there it moved to Nashville's fairgrounds where artists performed on stages set up on a race track and spent hours signing autographs for fans in the grounds' exhibit halls in stifling heat. Fan Fair moved downtown in 2001, its name was changed to CMA Music Festival in 2004, and more focus was placed on live performances and offering free shows and experiences for fans who couldn’t afford or find tickets. This year, CMA Music Festival expanded to add Nashville’s new Ascend Amphitheater to its list of stages.
"We have this wonderful new state-of-the-art facility right in downtown Nashville in our footprint, and it’s a great opportunity to for us to have another large stage with a more controlled environment," Trahern said. "If I were the artists, I would run to play Ascend because they have dressing rooms. I think this year will be a great introduction to the stage, and next year I look forward to expanding our offerings even more."
In addition Trahern said the festival's stage in Walk of Fame Park as well as Fan Fair X — CMA Music Festival's indoor experience at Music City Center — continues to grow. For $10 a day or $25 for a four-day pass to Fan Fair X, country music fans gain access to three indoor stages, including the Country Music Close Up stage that will include Hillary Scott, Marie Osmond, Charles Esten, Martina McBride, Billy Ray Cyrus and Charles Kelley. There are also extensive shopping, meet-and-greet opportunities and interactive fan experiences in the air-conditioned space.
"The heart of Music Fest is still the interaction between the artists and the fans," Trahern said. "Our goal in terms of continuing to be a format that (fosters) that relationship between the artists and the fans, I think Fan Fair X is an essential part to it. We have more folks signing autographs than even last year."
Country Music Madness: Vote for the best country song of all time
The growth and popularity of the festival continues to benefit Nashville and its residents. While Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation, admits locals often complain about added traffic and difficulty parking, he said the revenue generated by the festival, the jobs the event creates and the monetary donation the Country Music Association makes to music programs in Metro Nashville Public Schools with monies made by the festival outweigh the perceived inconvenience.
“In the context of what it does, there is the whole PR aspect, which is invaluable putting Nashville on a global stage,” Spyridon said. “It is a huge benefit to the economic vitality of this city. It is a big reason the city just had its largest budget increase without a tax increase. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves a little inconvenience is worth it if it’s done right and the payoff is there. … We don’t have anything that rivals the scope of CMA Fest. It’s on a stage by itself.”
Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227 or ciwatts@tennessean.com.
CMA Music Festival by the numbers:
When: June 9-12 in downtown Nashville
Who: More than 400 artists
Stages: 11
Attendance: More than 85,000 country music fans are expected to attend the festival each day.
Where they stay: CMA Music Festival attendees occupy an estimated 158,000 hotel room nights in Nashville the week of the festival.
Money spent: More than $60 million
How to get tickets
Tickets to CMA Music Festival's nightly concerts at Nissan Stadium are sold out. Tickets to Fan Fair X, which includes meet and greets, three concert stages and shopping opportunities, are $10 a day or $25 for a four-day pass at www.cmamusicfestival.com. Seven music stages are free and open to the public.