AmericanaFest is where Nashville’s music community shows its other face: the one that doesn’t wear rhinestones or headline Nissan Stadium. It runs five days each September across 50+ venues and is the country’s most important gathering for Americana, folk, bluegrass, country-adjacent, and roots music.
What It Actually Is
AmericanaFest (officially AMERICANAFEST, presented by the Americana Music Association) combines a music festival with an industry conference. The 2025 edition ran September 9-13 across 51 venues with more than 200 showcasing artists and nearly 300 events. The New York Times has called it “the coolest music scene today.”
The centerpiece is the Americana Honors & Awards ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium, a genuine event in the Nashville music calendar, not a manufactured industry night. The 2025 ceremony recognized MJ Lenderman (Emerging Act), Gillian Welch & David Rawlings (Duo/Group), Sarah Jarosz (Song of the Year for “Ancient Light”), and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats as Artist of the Year, among others.
How the Festival Works
AmericanaFest is a showcase festival, more similar to South by Southwest than to CMA Fest. Artists perform at clubs, listening rooms, and bars across Nashville, not on one central stage. Access works through passes, not individual tickets (with some exceptions).
Festival Passes ($125 for 2025) provide admission to evening showcases at participating venues. This is the entry-level option and gets you into the music.
Silver Passes ($399 for Association members, $549 non-members) include the conference component, panels, networking events, industry access, and premium interaction with music business professionals. If you’re in the music industry or want to be, this is the meaningful tier.
The Honors & Awards show at the Ryman is separately ticketed and typically sells out.
What the Conference Side Covers
The conference runs panels on the business side of music: AI and the music industry, label structures, publishing, touring, artist development, and equity in the music business. It draws agents, managers, label representatives, publishers, and working musicians who are trying to navigate the industry. For people actually building careers in Americana and roots music, this week is a genuine career accelerator.
Why It Matters Beyond Nashville
AmericanaFest draws attendees from across the world, not in the tourist volume of CMA Fest, but in concentrated numbers of music industry professionals and serious fans. The booking of emerging artists at small venues creates the kind of access that stadium festivals can’t provide: you can watch someone who will be headlining festivals in three years perform for 100 people in a room.
Venues like the Station Inn, 3rd and Lindsley, City Winery, and the Bluebird Cafe all host official showcases. The Bluebird sessions are separately ticketed and require reservations through the Bluebird’s own booking system.
How It Differs from CMA Fest
CMA Fest is mainstream country at stadium scale, focused on fan access to established stars. AmericanaFest is roots music at club scale, focused on emerging talent and music industry connection. The fan demographics overlap but the experience is fundamentally different. CMA Fest brings 95,000 people. AmericanaFest brings roughly 20,000. CMA Fest is for fans who love current country radio. AmericanaFest is for people who prefer Jason Isbell to Morgan Wallen.
Sources:
- Americana Music Association, 2025 Full Schedule: https://americanamusic.org/2025-full-schedule-mobile-app-new-showcases-panels-and-special-events/
- Holler.country, AmericanaFest 2025: https://holler.country/festivals/americanafest/2025
- Visit Nashville, AmericanaFest: https://www.visitmusiccity.com/nashville-events/americana-music-festival-conference