Country Mike Blog

CMA Festival, Bonnaroo need separate weekends

Mike Sudhalter  |  June 20, 2011

Arriving in Nashville for the CMA Festival is always an interesting experience. There's folks headed to the CMA Festival, and more headed south to Manchester, Tenn. for Bonnaroo.

Now, before you say everyone at CMA is wearing cowboy hats and belt buckles and all of the Bonnaroo-goers are sporting tie-dye. I say, "STOP".

Darryl Worley played the CMA Festival earlier this month in Nashville

There are plenty of music fans who would love to go to both festivals if they weren't on the same weekend.

And that would mean much more revenue for both festivals - if say 10 percent or so - decided to attend both.

Personally, I think Bonnaroo should change its dates because it's the newer festival (10th year) to CMA's 40th.

I've heard that traffic gridlock around Nashville is bad during both festivals (although I didn't notice it too much because I didn't drive while I was there).

Summer is a time for music, relaxation and fun. So, let's try to enjoy the music as much as we can and have these two top-notch festivals on different weekends.