Gettin’ Social at Wildhorse Saloon
(contributed by Lisa Hendin)
The code has been cracked! After days of clues like “It’s between a rock and a hard place” and “It has some ugly neighbors,” fans finally uncovered the location of this year’s CMT Music Festival Fan Social.
The Wildhorse Saloon was filled to capacity on Saturday, June 12 as hundreds poured in to watch performances from their favorite artists.
With all three levels of the venue completely full, employees had to block the entrance doors, leaving a line full of hopefuls that wrapped around the block.
Those who made it inside rushed to the dance floor, inching as close to the main stage as the gates would allow. Some lucky attendees received a color-coded ticket at the door, their voucher to meet certain artists performing at the event.
CMT’s “Top 20 Countdown” host Evan Farmer introduced each artist to the stage and conducted a Q&A session with them at the end of each set. He started things off with Chris Janson, a young man who almost didn’t make it to the show.
Janson had passed out from the heat earlier in the day, but when the hospital told him the minimum stay for dehydration was two hours, he chose to spend the time with his fans instead. The Missouri native sang some solid original songs, but the crowd was equally blown away by his fine-tuned harmonica skills.
Next up was Randy Houser, who walked onstage with only one question: “Who came out with their boots on?” With his brother accompanying him on piano, Houser sang the recent hit, along with several others and shed light on the “Boots On” music video.
Rodney Atkins kicked off the second hour of the show with a toast to the audience, proclaiming “Here’s to the greatest music fans in the entire world!”He performed a number of his hits, as well as his newest single, “Farmer’s Daughter.”
Bringing some girl power to the show, Laura Bell Bundy rocked the crowd. Applause filled the building and the Broadway star even teared up as she thanked the fans for being supportive.
Bundy eventually swapped her boots for clogs and finished the set with a choreographed version of her most recent hit “Giddy On Up,” bringing those still seated to their feet.
The big surprise of the night came from newcomer Jaron and the Long Road to Love, when Jaron Lowenstein slipped onto the stage during a set change and began belting out his single, “Pray for You.” The crowd took over the chorus, thrilled about the unexpected appearance.
Country Music’s favorite redneck woman, Gretchen Wilson, followed by “Getting You Home” singer Chris Young, closed the show, leaving yet another CMT Fan Social a success.
How do you find out about these kind of events that take place during the 4 day span of the festival. I got back home today and read this article and got so mad – I wanted so bad to try to get an autograph from Gretchen Wilson. We got to see her on the Riverfront stage and she was awesome! She’s been my idol and hero since I first heard her.
Hi Pam. Sorry you missed the Fan Social at CMA Music Festival. We do one every year for all the folks that are fans on Facebook, Twitter or subscribed to our email newsletter. It’s all free and easy to sign up.
http://www.facebook.com/countrymusicassociation
http://www.twitter.com/countrymusic
Subscribe to email here: http://www.cmafest.com/connect/connect-to-country-music.aspx
I had a great time at the fan social! I wanted to alert everyone of a scam that was going on during the CMA Fan Social at Wildhorse…
My wife and I arrived at the fan social a little after 3pm, and had to wait in line to get in. While we were waiting in line, there were two girls walking around with baskets, clip-boards, and little sheets of paper, stating that they were collecting entries for the door prize at Wildhorse Saloon. Everyone in the line was writing their name and phone # on the piece of paper and giving it back to them to “enter”.
Fast forward to yesterday when we were on our drive back home from Nashville. I got a call on my cell phone from a person that identified themselves as an agent from “Oasis Travel” – stating that I won a free vacation when I entered the other day. They then rambled on about all of the free nights I won in Daytona, the Bahamas, Fort Lauderdale, etc. They said I also won a free 3-night cruise. I was pretty stoked, but skeptical as well – for obvious reasons. They asked me a few questions to make sure I was “eligible”, and then told me that to reserve the vacation, I had to pay the processing fees – which were $249 for me, and $249 for my wife. I did not give them my number – in fact, the phone cut out and they never called back.
A few hours later, my wife got a call from a different #, from a different “agent” of the same company. They said the exact same thing to her, and asked her for a credit card # to reserve the vacation. She hung up on them.
I later looked up “Oasis Travel” online and discovered tons of fraud complaints about the company – from people that also “won” a “contest”. Here is a list of a bunch of them:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/Oasis-travel.aspx
I looked up the address the agent gave me and think that they also operate under the name “Amazon Travel” as well.
Be careful everyone!!!
Take care,
Doug