CMA Fest security for artists and their teams
CMA Fest puts a large share of country music's artists into a few blocks of downtown Nashville for several days every June, surrounded by a very large and very devoted crowd. For an artist's team, the stages are the easy part. This guide covers everything between them.
Why the festival is different
Most shows have one venue, one load-in, and one exit. CMA Fest is a schedule of short appearances spread across downtown: stadium sets at night, daytime stages near the river and around Broadway, fan signings, media, sponsor events, and after-parties. An artist can have five movements in a day through streets that are full of fans who know exactly where the artists are going to be.
The festival and its venues run security for their spaces. The gaps are the walks and drives between them, the hotel, and anything off the official schedule.
Where the exposure is
On a typical festival day, the moments that need a plan are:
- Hotel exits and arrivals, which fans watch closely during festival week
- Walking routes between nearby stages, where a recognized artist draws a moving crowd
- Signings and meet-and-greets, where lines, gifts, and physical contact all need managing
- Vehicle pickups in closed or congested streets, which need staging agreed in advance
- After-parties and dinners outside the festival footprint, where no event security is looking after anyone
Working with festival and venue security
A private detail does not replace the festival's security or the venue's staff, and should not try. Our role is the principal. That means coordinating with the artist's own tour security director if there is one, confirming credentials and access routes with production, and knowing who controls each door before the artist reaches it.
When a tour already travels with a security director, we are extra hands that know Nashville: routes, hotels, side entrances, and how downtown traffic behaves during the festival.
Drones during festival week
Aerial overwatch can be useful for watching a crowd build along a route, but downtown Nashville is a difficult place to fly. Most of the city sits under BNA's controlled airspace, where a commercial pilot needs authorization (usually through LAANC) before flying. Separate federal restrictions apply around large stadiums during certain sporting events, and temporary flight restrictions can be issued for major events.
Tennessee law adds its own limits, including restrictions on capturing images with intent to conduct surveillance and on flying near critical infrastructure. Any drone work we do during festival week is planned around those authorizations and the permission of the property owner, or it does not happen.
CMA Awards week
The CMA Awards bring a different version of the same problem in November, centered on Bridgestone Arena: red carpet arrivals, rehearsals, hotel moves, and a week of label and sponsor events. Nominees and presenters often bring their own teams and add local agents for the week.
Planning ahead
Hotels, vehicles, and experienced agents are all in short supply during festival week. If you are planning security for an artist or a label guest, start the conversation in the spring with the schedule as it stands, and we will build the detail around it as the appearances are confirmed.
The useful things to send are the appearance schedule, the hotel, how the artist is arriving in town, who already travels with the team, and any known concerns, such as a persistent fan or a recent incident. Everything you share stays with the detail.
Questions
The festival and venues secure their own spaces. Movements between them, hotels, and private events are generally the responsibility of the artist's team.
Yes. We take direction from the tour's security lead and add local knowledge and staffing where the plan needs it.
It depends on the artist's profile, the number of appearances, and whether the team already travels with security. We work that out from the schedule during the consultation.
Only with the airspace authorizations and permissions that apply at the time and place. Downtown is under controlled airspace, and we plan any flight around that or do not fly.
As early as the spring. Festival week fills quickly, and a detail planned against the real schedule is better than one assembled the week before.
Big weeks in Nashville
Weeks when private events and visiting artists stretch Nashville's agents, drivers, and hotels. Book these early.
Request a consultation
Tell us roughly what is coming up. The office calls back, usually the same day, to talk through the schedule and what kind of detail it needs. Nothing is booked until you say so.
Call the office
Confidential
Requests go to the office and nobody else. Keep names and addresses out of the form if you prefer; we will take them by phone.