Every June, CMA Fest takes over Nashville, drawing tens of thousands of country music fans from across the globe to the heart of Music City. Now in its 51st year, the four-day extravaganza showcases 300 acts across multiple stages -from the genre’s biggest stars to up-and-coming artists – spread across the bustling streets of downtown Nashville to historic Ryman Auditorium and the state-of-the-art Nissan Stadium. Fans can also get unparalleled access to their favourite artists through meet-and-greets, autograph signings, and intimate acoustic sets. Beyond the music, the event supports a good cause, with proceeds benefiting the CMA Foundation’s commitment to music education.
Team EF is in town for the festival all week, and we'll be reporting from every nightly show at Nissan Stadium (as well as other things – make sure you're keeping an eye on our social media for more!). Here's what we made of last night's kick off event…
Craig Morgan
Opening the main stage was Opry member and US Army veteran Craig Morgan, who kicked things off with his playful performance of ‘Redneck Yatch Club' before leaning into his more laid-back side on ‘That's What I Love About Sunday' and the soaring ‘Almost Home'. Elsewhere, he showed off his military pride with ‘Soldier' – preceded by a passionate speech which saw him waving aloft a huge American flag – before wrapping things up with the high-energy tribute to America's farmers, ‘International Harvester'.
Jordan Davis
We've been big fans of Jordan Davis here at EF for a while, and fresh from his UK tour earlier this year, he definitely brought the party to Nissan Stadium. From the fun flirtatiousness of ‘Take It From Me', ‘Singles You Up' and ‘Almost Maybes' to the bittersweet ‘Tucson Too Late' and heartfelt ‘Next Thing You Know' (the ACM Awards 2024 Song Of The Year) and ‘Buy Dirt', he showed off the sheer range of his performance and got the crowd singing along and pumped up for the rest of the night, particularly on his final song of the set, ‘What My World Spins Around'.
Ashley McBryde
She may be pulling double duty this year as co-host of the CMA Fest TV show alongside Jelly Roll, but Ashley McBryde still made time to deliver a powerhouse of a set. Opening with ‘Blackout Betty' from her latest album ‘The Devil I Know', she rocked out the stage on the likes of ‘One Night Standards', ‘Women Ain't Whiskey' and ‘Martha Divine' – as well as bringing out country legend Gretchen Wilson for a duet on ‘Redneck Woman' that saw her drop to her knees in mock worship at the end! However, there was also time for quieter moments such as ‘Girl Goin' Nowhere' and ‘Light On In The Kitchen', before she closed with a barnstorming rendition of ‘The Devil I Know'.
Thomas Rhett
Introduced as ‘one of your favourite country dads', TR may have copied some of his dance moves from Luke Bryan, but he was certainly in fine form and a heck of a lot of fun. Telling the crow this was his tenth year playing the stadium, he took us on a whistle stop tour through his career from ‘You Make Me Wanna' to recent release ‘Beautiful As You' and new song (literally, it just dropped last night!) ‘Gone Country' from his upcoming album ‘About A Woman'. That said, there was still plenty of space for fan favourites like the cheeky ‘Crash and Burn', ‘Look What God Gave Her' – which saw him snapping selfies with fans – and ‘What's Your Country Song'. He finished with ‘Die A Happy Man', encouraging the crowd to light up their phones, and they happily obliged to turn Nissan Stadium into a sparkling, magical moment.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Last but certainly not least, country-rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd closed the first night of the festival with a performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of their debut album, ‘(Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd)'. They wowed the crowd with classics from across their career, including ‘Free Bird', ‘Simple Man' and – of course – ‘Sweet Home Alabama'.
The show also featured an array of performances on the Platform Stage in between main stage acts, including trio Chapel Hart with their stunning harmonies and sassy lyrics, singer-songwriter Dylan Gossett (whose lyrics “if pressure makes diamonds then why am I still coal?” must be one of the lines of the year) and Shaboozey, performing his summer smash hit ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)'. We even had a special guest appearance from Blake Shelton and Post Malone!
To find out more about CMA Fest, please visit cmafest.com.
