CMA Fest Day Two: Big Surprises Despite A Few Rain Delays

The 48th annual CMA Fest wrapped day two of its four-day festival yesterday with even more surprises, Hollywood stars and sold-out crowds. Despite a few rain delays, the streets of downtown Nashville were packed with fans enjoying their favorite music and visiting the unique activations throughout the festival.

Carrie Underwood closed out Nissan Stadium with an epic surprise guest, Joan Jett, performing a medley of Jett’s classic hits including “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” “Bad Reputation,” “Crimson And Clover,” “Fresh Start” and “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll,” which had the crowd rocking out to every word. Thomas Rhett brought out Jon Pardi to perform their new song “Beer Can’t Fix” from Thomas Rhett’s new album Center Point Road. Just days after breaking the Nissan Stadium attendance record, Eric Church performed a powerful solo acoustic set of his biggest hits. LOCASH had the crowd singing along at the Radio Disney Country Stage and CMA KixStart Artist Scholarship recipient Travis Denning brought the energy to the Chevy Breakout Stage at Walk of Fame Park.

Fans showed up in droves yesterday, with the Firestone Country Roads Stage at Ascend Amphitheater sold-out crowd, which featured headliner Brett Young, and the Chevy Riverfront Stage hitting capacity for three straight performances on day two of the festival. The stage first hit capacity during Jordan Davis’ performance and remained at capcity through Morgan Wallen and Hunter Hayes’ set, with thousands of fans singing along to their favorite songs. Old Dominion kicked things off with their Artist of the Day session, performing on the CMA Close Up Stage to a packed house at Xfinity Fan Fair X.

The HGTV ‘A Very Brady’ Lodge featured performances by “This Is Us” star Chrissy Metz and Creative Nation artists Kassi Ashton, Barry Dean, Luke Laird and Steve Moakler. In addition, cast members of “The Brady Bunch” – Barry Williams (Greg), Maureen McCormick (Marcia) and Susan Olsen (Cindy) – participated in a panel and meet & greet with fans.

CMA Fest is the longest-running Country Music festival in the world with a portion of ticket proceeds directly benefiting high-quality music education initiatives across the United States through the CMA Foundation, thanks to all the artists performing at CMA Fest donating their time.