Country Mike Blog

Lookin' Back

Mike Sudhalter  |  July 9, 2007

It feels just like yesterday that I was celebrating my appreciation for country music during the CMA Festival in Nashville, but it's been exactly a month.

I hope to return to the festival, but I don't know if it'll happen next year or 2009. In a nutshell, here's what I liked about it: live music at the honky-tonks, the Riverfront shows, the artists/booths at the convention center. What I didn't: short sets at LP Field, and well, that's about it.

I still had a lifetime experience of pictures and memories from the trip that I'll cherish for a long time.

There's things that I'd still like to do on my next trip to Nashville: Visit the Opryland hotel, take a tour of the stars' homes, see a songwriter's night at the Bluebird Cafe, check out the campus at Belmont University, attend Marty Stuart's concert on the eve of Fan Fair.

I tried to get fellow Fan Fair attendees to comment on their experiences, what they liked and what they didn't. Only Melissa of Ontario, Canada responded. If you attended the festival, let me know what you liked and what you didn't She was also a first time festival-goer, and here's a sample of what she thought:

On the festival

"I loved the whole thing. It was larger then I expected but that was nice. I found all the fans friendly and helpful to one another...I liked the music by the river during the day and the music in the coliseum at night."

On the photo lines

"The photograph line by the river was great you could get up close and still see all the acts. I didn't like the photograph line in the coliseum as depending on who you were lining up for you missed out on a lot of acts and couldn't even hear them very well."

On festival coordination

"I prefer watching all of the acts instead of just my favourites. I like the autograph booths in the arena although I found that I had no idea when anyone was going to be at their booth, so it was hit or miss. If there was a schedule any where I could not find it. For me it would have been nice to plan that a bit. I also found that to get the autographs you had to miss acts at the river. The event I found was spread out quite a bit, but with something that large I don't think there was much of an option."