Celebrating the Heritage

39 Years Old…and Nowhere Near Over the Hill.

Since 1972, Country Music’s most ardent fans have made the pilgrimage to Nashville for a one-of-a-kind event that honors the artist-fan relationship – the CMA Music Festival. The event, originally hailed as “Fan Fair®,” was born to accommodate the thousands of Country fans who began showing up to the annual DJ convention hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars attending. When the curtain rose on Fan Fair’s inaugural year, about 5,000 enthusiastic fans greeted the event at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium.

As Fan Fair evolved through the years, it eventually moved venues to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in 1982 to accommodate growth, and again in 2001 to its current home in Downtown Nashville where it celebrates its 10th year in 2010. In 2004 the event was re-named CMA Music Festival, with the “Fan Fair” name still married to the event’s legacy – now as the title of the exhibit hall autograph venue. The 2009 CMA Music Festival was the most successful to date, having hosted more than 56,000 fans each of the event’s four days.

Throughout a rich 39-year history, Fan Fair® and CMA Music Festival have never lost sight of its roots, its reason for existing: the unique and special bond that exists between the stars and the fans that support them. To the talent community past and present and to the fans who live and breathe Country Music, CMA salutes you.