I had had been officially working in my current position at CMA for a good couple of months when someone asked the dreaded question, “How many times as so-and-so performed at the Festival?”

At the time, there was no easy way to answer, so I set out to create a searchable database of artists who’ve appeared at our event. Recent years were easy as we had easily accessible schedules, documents, and websites where we could get information. But of course, I eventually had to do my research old-school style: archived Fan Fair programs books and old issues of our CMA member magazine, Close Up.

Here 'tis out source material hiding out in the back of a closet.

It took nearly a week to compile the list, and sure, there are probably errors – either someone had to cancel their appearance or maybe we missed some magical on-stage collaboration with a special guest that wasn’t recorded in our records – but, I now have the best guess as to who holds the record for the most appearances at Fan Fair/CMA Music Festival.

I’m going to keep that my little secret for now, but if you have any guesses, I’d love to hear them!