Review of the CMAfest

After I dropped my entourage off at the Family zone I ventured briefly back over to the exhibit hall and then on to the Nashville Riverfront Stages Show to see Blue County, I'd heard that they put on some incredible shows. These guys are great entertainers and enthralled the entire Nashville Riverfront Stages audience.

Now it was time to do what most women do best-Go Shopping, so I headed over to the Gaylord Entertainment Center where Leadership Music was having their annual Leadership Music's Music Festival Yard Sale and silent auction. Sadly, I missed the silent auction, but I did catch a part of the yard sale. They had tons of items signed by various Country music artists as well as CD's, Photos, Posters, Tour Shirts, key-chains, coffee mugs, bumper stickers and more. Needless to say when I had finished, I had a huge bag full of goodies.
From there I headed over to the Hall of Fame Park to see what was happening at Martina McBride's Celebrity Auction. Every year the proceeds from the Celebrity Auction go to the YW of Middle Tennessee, a domestic abuse program. Some of the artists helping at the auction were Andy Griggs, Jamie O'Neal, Brad Paisley and Chely Wright. Some of the items being sold; Photo's, CD's, life-size stand ups, Grad Ole Opry Tickets, Hand-written Lyrics, T-shirts, Wrangler Blue jeans, Hats and even books. Most everything was personally autographed by any number of country music artists.I saw one happy little boy, who was about 10 years old, grinning from ear to ear and proudly displaying to all, an autographed guitar that his parents had won for him. Some of the highest bids of the day were an Alan Jackson plaque for $8,000 and a Garth Brooks plaque for $11,000, but the highest bid of the day was $15,000 for Lunch with Faith Hill and Tim McGraw that also included Airfare, and 2 Tim McGraw Concert tickets. But, there were also plenty of lower ticket items for sale and bid, for those without real deep pockets. When everything was totaled, the Celebrity Auction had earned a grand total of $132,500.