One unique element of the festival is that anyone who wants to be scheduled to play, can play.

If you call yourself a songwriter, we'll put you up on stage. We're not a group of elitist or fancy pants like other festivals. We mix it up with featured and regular writers. 

The fest is open to all. Any genre. Any time!  We understand that at one time, the Pros were novices, till someone gave them a chance.

Music Pros who have “Been there and done that“ will represent a full range of 18 industry subjects.

Membership, Music Factory Career Critique, Music Products Critique, Recording Sound & Video, Publishing, Plugging, Legal, Records, Duplication, Distribution, Radio, Video & Broadcasting, Shop, Management, Promotions, Productions...

Rooms will be on the first and second floors of the Music Row Best Western Friday thru Sunday.

You can take in all the classes or just fill in your day in between jam sessions with whatever classes interest you. A complete roster of this year's topics can be viewed under Pick Your Activity > Learn From The Pros listing in the menu.

The fest is open to all, from the novice to the pro. Play schedules are intermingled with featured and regular writers. The pros were once novices and the novices may one day be pros.

So before or after sets, chat with your heroes or maybe a hero will come up and chat with you. This is especially true at the Music Speciality Areas. Remember, "The fest is what you make it."

• Around 8pm, Friday night, the Festival Grand Master appears to accept the keys to Music Row and anoints the "Blessing of the Songwriters in SongWriter Land."  
• The Grand Master then proceeds to offer special protections to all attendees and play some cherished tunes.
• We all then take our new found powers and descend on the Row.

• Submit your CD to the Fest while you are there.
• There will be a drop off box near the Fest Info booth.
• We will gather these CD's, listen to them.
• Forward them to appropriate publishers participating at the fest.

There will be several items raffled at the fest. Last year we had some really nice guitars, a studio demo and so on.

This year, so far we have a beautiful Hand Crafted Leather Guitar Strap valued at $250, A 5 instrument/1 Vocal Demo package valued at $500 and so on. 

The list grows as we near the fest. Stop by the Info Booth and check out what's new.

Some stages have recorders set up thru the board or Video cameras set up to catch you live.

Play, record and then post on your MySpace or UTube account.

Let us know if you want a live recording or video stage so that we can fit you in that schedule.

Or if you want to record at a full blown studio, let us know. We have plenty of referrals for every phase of your project.

Our very first fest at Loretta Lynn's Ranch,  we didn't have any T-Shirts. Everybody wanted them. So I guess it's just not a festival without Tees & Hats. 

Every since then we now carry, Tees & Caps for you guys.

You can pick some up when you arrive or snag other souvenirs while at the Info Booth.

The Fest is more of a Happening than an event. You never know till the day of show, who or what may pile on.

This is Music Row in Music City and a mostly industry gathering. Part of the industry's function is to keep up with the competition, gather data, sometimes spy and blatantly promote.

We are always amazed when we find out who dropped by or what transpired after the fact. We will try to keep you updated on what we do know but there's a lot we don't. :) 

Come, be yourself, and most of all have fun.  That's when the real music magic happens.