Country icon Dolly Parton officially welcomed fans to CMA Fest 2024 on Thursday. It's the ultimate country music fan experience - four days and four nights of live country music on stages across Nashville featuring the hottest headliners.
"People just come in from literally all over the world for this week," said country singer Thomas Rhett. "It's kind of the only week-long kind of festival that you can literally watch music from 8 a.m. until 2 o'clock in the morning."
There is music everywhere. From the Riverfront stage to Music City Center and everywhere in between. Each night's main event happens inside Nissan Stadium.
"The lineup is crazy. You know, being in Nashville like, I mean, this is the home of country music, so it's like there's an extra kind of specialness to it," said singer-songwriter Jordan Davis.
"I want to see everyone just let loose and have fun and be free," added singer-songwriter Shaboozey. "I'm excited to just see when that last chorus comes, how much energy I can get, you know, how crazy we can get the stadium to go."
And at CMA Fest, even the superstars are super fans, with some of them saying they were excited to see iconic artists such as the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
"And those fans keep drawing us back in," said Johnny Van Zant, lead vocalist of Lynyrd Skynyrd. "When you're down you listen to music and you play it if you're a musician, when you're happy you listen to music, so music is a great healer and it's a great thing. Our fans have been with us for many, many years."
CMA Fest 2024 goes until Sunday, June 9. For more information visit cmafest.com.
A three-hour primetime concert special hosted by Jelly Roll and Ashley McBryde, will air Tuesday, June 25, at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.