One week in Nashville is always a good idea, right? But one week in Nashville during the annual CMA Fest is where you take your life into your own hands! Shows, events, concerts, sports, talks, bars and day after day of early mornings and late nights is what is on the cards for the annual celebration of all that is mainstream Country music. This year was no exception and we wanted to bring you a snapshot of what we did, saw and experienced during that week, in and around town.
The End of An Era at the Nissan Stadium
This year's CMA Fest was, barring any delays or catastrophes, the last one ever to be held at the iconic Nissan Stadium, just across the Cumberland river from downtown Broadway. The very first Fan Fair (which is what CMA Fest would go on to become) was held in 1972 and the for the last 23 years there has been a show sold to ABC and Hulu which has come to dominate the schedules for the four day festival. The Nissan stadium bowed out with a bang this year – there was the Florida Georgia Line reunion, Brothers Osborne playing with Cody Johnson, Riley Green and Carly Pearce singing their duet together and Fetty Wap appearing with Russell Dickerson amongst the highlights. Next year's show will be held in the new stadium being built right next door and the roof means there will never be any more weather delays or cancellations at the festival ever again!
Billboard Country live at Category 10
Billboard Country Live delivered a packed, high-energy two-day showcase that drew a record 32,000 fans to downtown Nashville. Featuring a stacked lineup of country’s biggest hitmakers and rising stars, the event saw standout performances from the likes of The Red Clay Strays, Carly Pearce, and Tucker Wetmore, alongside surprise collaborations and special moments that kept crowds at capacity throughout. Highlights included Pearce’s stunning cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams,' The Red Clay Strays’ electrifying headline set ahead of their album ‘Grateful,' and Wetmore’s fast-paced closing performance featuring new material. Kicking off with an exclusive rooftop celebration honouring industry leaders like Miranda Lambert and Riley Green, who took home the Hitmaker award, handed out by Clint Black. Billboard Country Live cemented itself as a major live music moment in the Nashville calendar, blending star power, fan demand and a festival atmosphere into one standout event. We particularly enjoyed newcomer Braxton Keith's set and seeing Stella Lefty sing viral song-of-the-moment ‘Boston' on day two of the event. Same again next year, please, an absolute peach of an event.
The Opry NextStage show at Category 10
Luke Combs' bar really nailed it for live events this year! They have a great space, stage and sound system in there which makes it possibly the best bar in town to host live events. It's bigger than Ole Red so Spotify must be fairly annoyed that Billboard and the Opry have nabbed the space! On the Wednesday night, the eve of the festival starting, the Opry hosted a show featuring a good number of their Next Stage class of 2026 so it was great seeing artists like Emily Ann Roberts, Tyler Braden, Alexandra Kay and Graham Barham bring their varied and diverse versions of Country music to the stage. We had a blast!
MCA Showcase at Skydeck
Another two day event held at Skydeck, opposite the Bridgestone arena at Fifth & Broadway. The space up at the top of the Assembly Food Hall feels just intimate enough to give you the impression that you are witnessing a really special event and we felt like that when we popped in to see Wyatt Flores and Little Big Town. Both artists seemed to be really enjoying themselves playing a stage they wouldn't normally play and the 45 minute sets were delivered with energy, passion and big smiles all round!
Midland at Friends in Low Places bar
Squashed into a small bar on Broadway to see Midland? Sounds just about the perfect afternoon, right? Lots of people had the same idea so Garth's ‘Friends in Low Places' bar was rammed for this one off album release celebration. It was hot, squashed and sweaty – the perfect conditions with which to see these Texas troubadours do what they do best. A mix of classics and new album tracks delighted the crowd and sent them back out onto Broadway an hour later with a spring in their step in search of that next beer!
ERNEST's ‘Stars for Second Harvest' benefit show at the Ryman
Since taking over from Craig Wiseman in 2023 local boy ERNEST has been the careful curator of this benefit show for an Tennessee food bank. This year the show was spilt into two halves. A songwriters round featuring ERNEST, HARDY, Lee Miller and the legend that is Dean Dillon and then the second half was a headline show from current darling and unstoppable behemoth, Ella Langley. The songwriter segment was fantastic – with laughs and smiles and songs all round. Lee Miller, who has written multiple songs for the likes of Brad Paisley and Chris Stapleton, should stop songwriting now and become a stand up comedian and to be in the same room as Dean Dillon was a privilege. Some of the younger folks in the Ryman who were there for ERNEST, HARDY and Ella didn't seem to understand the import of sitting and listening to the guy that wrote George Strait classic like ‘The Chair' and a further 67 songs for Strait! He was also the man that wrote ‘Tennessee Whiskey,' which he did play as his final song.
Ella Langley headlined the second half with the stage decked out in florals and leaves to resemble her ‘Dandelion' album branding and imagery. She was calm, cool and confidant but it wasn't until the final run of songs like ‘Be Her, ‘You Look Like You Love Me,' and ‘Choosin Texas' that the crowd really became hyper-engaged. We enjoyed ‘Speaking Terms,' which we are fairly sure is going to go on to become another legacy song for her when it is, inevitably, released at some point this year.
Sony Music Nashville showcase at Gibson Guitars
Just a 10 minute stroll up Broadway past the Frist Art Museum is the Gibson shop. Well worth a visit all of its own for the range of guitars and merch they stock in there, we headed up on the Thursday morning to attend a Sony Music showcase featuring artists like Corey Kent, Tigirlily Gold and Kameron Marlowe. We were particularly thrilled to see Bellah Mae and Ian Harrison open the event – both being artists we've interviewed in the weeks leading up to CMA Fest. Again, it's a joy seeing artists in unusual and intimate places, which is the real beauty of being in Nashville during this week.
Ian Munsick Fan Breakfast
Getting anywhere for 9am during CMA Fest week is a challenge but we were up bright and early to get to Ian Munsick's fan breakfast on the Saturday morning at Urban Cowboy bar, just off Broadway. It was a thrill to see Munsick play 3 songs with his fiddle player and the breakfast on offer was a delicious mix of pastries, bagels and cakes with some hot, warm coffee to loosen up those vocal chords still straining from singing along to Cody Johnson gone midnight at the Nissan Stadium just a few hours earlier. Munsick also revealed his new album title and cover so it felt like a media event as well as a fan breakfast!
Lots of other artists, from Ashley McBryde to Russell Dickerson to Brothers Osborne to Tigirlily Gold to Charlie Worsham hosted similarly structured fan events across the week. Usually only available to fan club members but they are well worth attending.
Bars, Bars, Bars!
No trip to Nashville is complete without a good, old fashioned crawl up and down Broadway. It's a busy time, CMA Fest but still well worth doing and each bar will often have events or shows on above and beyond the normal programmed entertainment. JBJs hosted a Big Loud Rock event that artists like Liam St John were playing at. Ole Red hosted Spotify house again, one of the best live events of the week but almost impossible to get into unless you queue from 4-5am in the morning and even then they clear the bar periodically to let new fans in. Miranda's Casa Rosa, Aldean's bar & Chiefs all hosted events. We went to see our friends at Quartz Hill records on the Thursday night at Chief's bar and touched base with artists like Lakelin Lemmings, who is coming over to play the Country Calling festival in August.
If your bank balance can take the cost of the beers no CMA Fest is complete without a bit of bar time!
Dashville – Lainey Wilson's Bell Bottoms Up bar
Starting at 9pm for those folks that didn't manage to get a ticket or didn't want to go the the Friday night at the Nissan stadium, Dasha and her team took over Lainey Wilson's bar until the early hours of the next morning, so they also caught a second wave of folks coming out of the stadium around midnight. Featuring A DJ and Dasha and Breland behind the decks, this was a loud, brash and bombastic event jam-packed with shirtless cowboy dancers, smoke machines and general hoopla to bring the party and keep it going until the last person left. We were flagging at midnight when we stopped by but were soon energised by the fun and the folks there having a damn good time!
Every CMA Fest is like one of those do-it-yourself adventure books from the 1970s and 80s where readers would choose their own pathway and make their own decisions within the confines of one ever-changing story. No two pathways are ever the same. There are so many events on in Nashville during the week that you might not have been to a single one of the ones we went to and vice-versa – and that's the beauty of the week. It's the biggest party in Country music and how you enjoy it is completely up to you and no-one else!
