ALL the Free Things
Just about all of the shows (with the exception of Nissan Stadium) are completely free. The Chevrolet Riverfront Stage hosts lots of acts that are known, but not quite to the mega-fame level yet through the day. The Cracker Barrel Stage at Ascend Amphitheater has free nightly concerts with other known artists as well. There are countless other smaller stages that host free concerts. The Budweiser Forever Country Stage hosts many of your favorite artists from the past. The Chevy Breakout stage hosts many on the verge artists. Where else will you ever have the opportunity to see so many great artists for free?
Not only do many free or inexpensive events happen through the official CMA fest, but also all throughout the whole Nashville community. One of my favorite places in all of Nashville, The Listening Room Café, hosts amazing writers rounds all year round. It seems that every year during CMA fest they seem to somehow have even better writers. I find this to be one of the coolest places to go, and it does not even matter if you are a tourist or a local.
Meet & Greets
….....lots of meet and greets. Fan Fair X in the Music City Center full is a bunch of meet and greets. You can get a single day pass for $10 or a 4-day pass for $25. It seems to be becoming more and more difficult to meet artists, so why not pay that small amount to meet some of your favorite artists? It is a great experience that cannot be had anywhere else.
Not only do artists have all sorts of meet and greets, they make themselves so much more accessible to the fans. Brett Eldredge let all of Twitter know that he would be taking his dog Edgar to Centennial Dog Park at 12:15 and to come say hi. These artists know that all of the fans there are all of the BEST fans in country music, so why wouldn't they show us how much they cared?
Besides that, you never really know who you are going to see. You could go to the bar and have Sam Hunt standing across the way from you. You could be playing trivia and have Luke Bryan show up. The opportunities are actually endless.
The Crowds
Sure, Broadway is crazy busy. When isn't it? Most of the stages are not too busy. You can be up close to just about any stage without having to wait in any sort of crazy line or camping out overnight. There is so much going on everywhere at the same time, and the crowd is dispersed fairly throughout the city. There was never a time where I thought any stage seemed overcrowded.
*with the exception of Garth Brooks being at the close-up stage........but really, could you expect anything less for someone as great as Garth?
The Other Fans
I think country music already has the best fans of all, but CMA Fest brings out the best of the best. No matter where you go throughout the festival, it is full of the best fans. It helps that Nashville is a good central location, as well as the fact that it is Music City. You get to meet up with all of your friends that are music lovers from all over the country, as well as meet tons of other people just like you.
The App
The app makes it super easy to get around. It has a map of where everything is, exact time slots of when any artist is performing, and even an option to make your own schedule. The creators of the app knew exactly how to make it as user-friendly as possible, as well as truly helping you out. I wish that someone had an exact schedule made for me every day like this so my everyday life could be as organized as CMA fest is.
All for a Great Cause
Every artist at CMA fest plays without pay. This is quite the great sacrifice for them to do. CMA donates half of the net proceeds from the festival to benefit music education programs. With many schools cutting out their music and arts department, this is such an important thing. It had been proven that music education benefits student's academic achievement, social development, and increases the likelihood that they will participate in other activities.
