This weekend is gonna be a busy one, but you don't have to face it alone! We've got everything you need to know about Bonnaroo here, and a heap of CMA Fest coverage here. And be sure to visit Nashville Cream through the weekend, too — we'll be posting tons of photos and updates from the farm.
Don't like crowds? Then GTFO, as a thousand-year flood of music lovers is about to pour into Middle Tennessee this week. Per usual, an estimated 80,000 revelers will descend on nearby Manchester, Tenn., for the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which kicks off Thursday and runs through Sunday. 'Roo co-promoter Ashley Capps tells the Scene that ticket sales "are neck and neck with last year, which came within striking distance of selling out."
Meanwhile, country music fans from across the globe will raise downtown Nashville's population by another 80,000 a day for the annual CMA Music Festival, which features more than 500 artists. That's right: After (a welcome) two years apart, Middle Tennessee's two biggest musical events are back on the same weekend. And if that's not enough, on Wednesday the biggest rock 'n' roll band in the world will play LP Field.
There's good news for encroaching festivalgoers and crowd-phobic locals alike, as this is likely the last time for nearly a decade that so many mammoth events will converge in one week, as they have for nine of the past 13 years. Last week, CMA CEO Sarah Trahern told the Scene that starting in 2016, CMA Fest will regularly hit the first week of June.
"For the next nine years, we are booked for the week after Memorial Day week," Trahern said.
This is excellent news for stressed-out, spread-thin Music Row pros, along with equipment rental facilities, cartage companies and the like. Not to mention musicians and music fans, who rejoiced in 2013 and 2014 when Bonnaroo and CMA Fest finally landed on separate weekends. The same crowd groused and grumbled when both festivals reverted back to double-booking for 2015. But Trahern says that wasn't intentional.
"Our dates were set in 2013 for this year," she explains. "However, we are a little later in the month than usual. ... We have many factors to consider when operating a festival within a metropolitan center. We do not control when Bonnaroo is scheduled; we announce our dates and put our tickets on sale a year in advance."
As for Bonnaroo — which this year boasts headliners the likes of Billy Joel, Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar and Deadmau5, alongside notables such as Tears for Fears, Sturgill Simpson, Slayer, Alabama Shakes and more than 100 international acts — Capps tells the Scene the festival has no plans to move its traditional dates from the second week of June. But the festival is going through other changes.
In April, Capps' Knoxville-based AC Entertainment and partner Superfly Presents announced they had sold a controlling stake in Bonnaroo to concert-promotion behemoth Live Nation, making it the latest major music event to sell to a large corporation. Live Nation acquired a controlling interest in C3 Presents — promoters of Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits festivals — in 2014, while Live Nation's main competitor, AEG Live, acquired Coachella promoter Goldenvoice in 2001.
Capps says faithful Bonnaroovians have nothing to worry about. Like Goldenvoice and the others, AC and Superfly will soldier on as the festival's managing partners.
"We were the only major independent music festival in America at this particular point," Capps recalls, "and it did feel as if a strategic alliance was smart for us in every sense of the word. A lot of what Live Nation will be bringing to the table will be an investment in the infrastructure on the site. ... They want us to continue doing what we've been doing for the past 14 years."
He says the seed of the deal was planted about a year ago, when Live Nation and the festival founders began talks about co-promoting "some new events" on the Manchester site, Great Stage Park. That eventually led to a discussion about Live Nation buying into Bonnaroo. The nature of those other events?
"That would be very premature at this point," Capps says. "But the planning continues."
Perhaps Great Stage Park will host the next Rolling Stones-sized concert in Middle Tennessee. But first, the Stones — an entity more iconic than CMA and Bonnaroo combined — will add a Music City feather to their cap as the first rock 'n' roll act to headline LP Field. The concert comes days after country music superstars such as Florida Georgia Line, Little Big Town, Eric Church and Keith Urban play for the masses. Brad Paisley can just keep his amp plugged in — he's opening for the Stones in the same venue.
With bro country on the way out and a backlash against sexism on country radio in the headlines, this is an interesting time for the genre, and the time capsule at LP Field will look a lot different than the one captured at various stages around Lower Broad. As for Bonnaroo, when that Live Nation money kicks in, it might very well go back to booking wow-factor headliners like Paul McCartney — maybe Prince finally! — but this year the 'Roo is your best bet to see what's on the vanguard of almost any conceivable pop and indie genre.
Despite the size of Bonnaroo and CMA Fest, this year the heart of both events lies in their scope. It's the year of the undercard, as the best band, singer, rapper, DJ or comedian you're likely to see at either festival is one you'll probably discover wowing crowds on a side stage.
