Nashville Entertainment

If you get the impression that Nashville is a city offering live popular music only, you will soon realise that it offers many other entertainment options too. Nashville boasts a vibrant symphony orchestra, an opera company, a ballet company, the state’s largest professional theatre company and several smaller community theatres.

Nightlife

Nightlife in Nashville can be found all around town, but is centred on two main entertainment areas, The District and Music Valley. The District, an area with renovated warehouses and old bars, is the livelier area. Here, the Wildhorse Saloon and two dozen other clubs can be found, staging countless bands on any given weekend night. On the sidewalks, people rub shoulders as they hop from one club to the next.

Within The District, Second Avenue is currently the main drag, and this is where the hottest of the area’s clubs can be found. Nightclubs feature not only country music, but also dinner shows, songwriters’ showcases and family-oriented musical comedy.

Theatre and music

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center houses three theatres: Andrew Johnson, James K Polk and Andrew Jackson. Artists’ Cooperative Theater is a non-profit organisation dedicated to performing classic and modern theatrical productions. ACT I has presented over 50 productions of the world’s greatest plays to Nashville audiences. People’s Branch Theater is Nashville’s leading experimental theatre. Established in 2000, it brings together the best local artists to consistently create the most progressive, bold and innovative professional theatre in Nashville. Nashville Children’s Theater, founded in 1931, is the nation’s oldest continuing children’s theatre and the oldest professional theatre in Nashville.

Country music is king in Nashville. If you hear a country song on the radio, it’s practically assured that it was performed, recorded and mixed right here. In addition to the dozens of clubs featuring live country and bluegrass music, there’s also a very lively rock scene. Jazz, blues and folk clubs are also part of the mix. Live music can be seen on street corners, parking lots, at Riverfront Park, on closed-off streets and in hotel lounges, shopping malls and bars. Great live music will catch you by surprise from literally anywhere.

Like Memphis, the city overflows with talented musicians, who play anywhere they can, much to the benefit of visitors to Nashville. Music Valley, on the east side of Nashville, is where you’ll find the Grand Ole Opry, Acuff Theater, the seasonal Stardust Theatre, Nashville Nightlife Theater, Nashville Palace, Texas Troubadour Theater and Ernest Tubb Record Shop’s Midnite Jamboree as well as the Opryland Hotel, which has several bars and features plenty of live music.

Festivals

With its reputation as the country music capital of the US, many of Nashville’s festivals and events are musical. Here are some of the highlights:

• Commemoration of the Battle of New Orleans is a ceremony held at the Hermitage around Andrew Jackson’s burial place (January).
• Music City Blues Celebration is a festival featuring blues music, held in downtown Nashville (March).
• Tennessee Jazz and Blues is a string of concerts staged throughout the summer on the grounds of the Belle Meade Plantation and Hermitage, providing lively entertainment to the crowds (late May to mid-August).
• Summer Lights in Music City is an outdoor festival featuring musical, visual and dramatic art and culture in downtown Nashville (May).
• Celtic Music and Summer Solstice Celebration is a festival of all things Scottish and Irish, featuring dance, music and bagpipes (June).
• Tennessee State Fair is one of Nashville’s major calendar events. Rides, livestock, exhibits, shows and games as well as racing pigs, a petting zoo, acrobatics and karaoke; this fair is sure to excite the whole family (September).
• Nashville Shakespeare Festival features live theatre staged outdoors. Audiences can watch free performances of some of the English playwright’s most popular works. Held at Centennial Park (September).