Daytime Broadway is the version that most of Nashville’s actual fans prefer, and most first-time visitors never experience because they arrive on a Friday evening following the standard tourist script. The music is the same. The bars are open. The beer is available. The crowds are a fraction of the weekend night numbers. You can find a seat.
The Mechanics of Daytime Broadway
Bars on Lower Broadway open as early as 10 a.m. The first musicians start playing around the same time. By mid-morning, every honky-tonk on the strip has a band running through sets, working for tips in a room that has enough space to move around in. The difference between this and 10 p.m. on a Saturday night is the difference between a good concert and a mosh pit.
At Robert’s Western World during a Tuesday afternoon, you can sit at the bar, order the Recession Special for $6, hear a band play Marty Robbins and Hank Williams, and have a conversation with the person next to you. At Tootsie’s on a Thursday morning, the Wall of Fame photos are visible because you are not pressed against them by a crowd of strangers. At Nudie’s, the 100-foot bar with its silver dollars and the insured Nudie Mobile on the wall can actually be appreciated as the artifacts they are.
What Changes During the Day
The all-ages policy. Most honky-tonks on Broadway allow children before 6 p.m., with some shifting to 21-plus at 8 or 9 p.m. Families visiting with kids have a legitimate daytime window to experience the strip. This is not a loophole or a workaround; it is the intended use of the daytime hours.
The crowd composition shifts. Weekday daytime Broadway draws a mix of tourists who did their research and specifically chose this window, locals who work service industry shifts and come in on their days off, and people visiting Nashville for reasons other than nightlife who want to check the street off their list without committing to a full evening. The bachelorette presence is lower during the day; it does not disappear, but it is not the defining feature of every interaction.
The Particular Case for Sunday Morning
Sunday morning on Broadway is the most local-feeling window of the entire week. Robert’s Western World hosts its Sunday Morning Gospel set, which attracts a crowd that is there specifically for music rather than partying. The street from Saturday night has been cleaned, the bars are beginning to wake up, and the contrast with what the same blocks looked like eight hours earlier is almost comedic.
The Honest Recommendation
If you are visiting Nashville for a first time and you want to understand what Broadway actually is, spend two hours there on a weekday morning and two hours there on a Friday or Saturday night. The comparison will tell you more about what the street does and does not do than any guide can. The daytime version has the substance. The nighttime version has the spectacle. Both are real. Neither one is the complete picture.
Sources
- Notes on Nashville, Complete Broadway Honky Tonk Guide: https://notesonnashville.com/live-music/honky-tonks-broadway-nashville-guide/
- TripAdvisor, Touring the Broadway Bars During the Day: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g55229-i154-k13167984-TouringtheBroadwaybarsduringtheday-NashvilleDavidsonCounty_Tennessee.html
- Nashville Pedal Tavern, Beat the Weekend Crowds: https://www.nashvillepedaltavern.com/blog/beat-the-weekend-crowds-why-youll-love-broadway-during-the-week/
- Atlas Obscura, Robert’s Western World: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/roberts-western-world-nashville