Here’s what separates country music celebrities from rock stars: space. Rock stars crave it. Country’s performers are usually more amiably accessible to the folks to pay their bills – the fans. This is never as evident as at the CMA Music Festival. The 2012 edition is coming up soon, the gathering of like-minded musicians and their fan base set for downtown Nashville June 7 – 10.
This year the show headlines a trio of legendary artists: Glen Campbell, Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers. Campbell performs on the Thursday, June 7, Milsap Friday, June 8 and Rogers Saturday, June 9.
Other stars light up the nights too: Lady Antebellum, Faith Hill, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and the like. All of them – every single one – performs for free. Half of the net proceeds from the festival go to support music education efforts through the Keep the Music Playing program. To date, some $6.1 million’s been given to buy instruments and supplies. That gives literally thousands of students in Metro Nashville Public Schools the resources to live out their dreams.
See what we mean when we say there’s a special relationship between country music artists and folks?
Woven throughout the weekend will ample opportunity for autographs and up-close meet and greets with the artists. This being Nashville, there’s also an array of family activities.
How popular is the CMA Fest? Very. Last year it drew some 65,000 fans from all 50 states, as well as 26 nations.
There’s plenty of air connectivity to CMA’s 2012 doings. The dominant airline at Nashville International Airport is Southwest. BNA (that’s Nashville’s airport code) is nicely connected to vast swatch of Southwest’s route system on a nonstop basis.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: kindofadraag)
