CMA Fest 2015 - Day 3

Good ole Day 3. You started with such disappointment, but quickly redeemed yourself. Last year Theresa and I attended the roasty-toasty City of Hope Celebrity Softball game. After the ridiculously early morning, sun, heat, and lack of skills, we came to the conclusion to skip the game in 2015.

What changed during that time? Well, Little Big Town was announced to play in the softball game. How could I resist seeing 4 of my favorite artists play by favorite game?!?! Theresa was also up for it, so we bought the tickets and prepared ourselves for the early morning.

The game actually took place at a brand new facility that was built for the Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team. I scouted out our seats online to make sure we would be in the shade. No frying in the sun for us!

The celebrity players entered the field to the left-hand side of the dugout in the photo above and were promptly met by a hoard of media.

Theresa took to the right side of the dugout to stalk Brett Michaels. As you can see, she came soooo close, but the event coordinators quickly nabbed him, slapped him in a jersey, and threw him to the media.

As I waited in the shade for a glimpse of LBT and for Theresa to return, I was getting direct messages from Chevrolet through Twitter. I had such huge butterflies while waiting to see what they wanted, as I had entered their contests to get our seats upgraded at LP Field!

To my surprise, they saw my many random Kristian Bush tweets and were prepared to give me a meet and greet with Kristian that same morning as I sat waiting for LBT to arrive at the softball game. I told myself that they would probably find another worthy fan, but I couldn't help but think of the adventure I would have had seeing the backstage of the Chevy Riverfront Stage.

Shortly after I had to turn down the meet and greet, it was announced the LBT would not be able to make the softball game due to a family emergency. Knowing what I know now, I would guess that it was for Jimi to get his voice checked at doctor. Best wishes to him as he heads in for surgery to get vocals polyp(s) removed. If you read my Kristian Bush post, then you'll know that we booked it over to the Riverfront Stage to catch KB perform!

And then after the concert we hustled our way to FanFairX for the meet and greet Theresa won for Kristian Bush.

I've gotta set this next part up...

Last year Theresa totally flipped out when her favorite HGTV stars, the Property Brothers, took the stage at LP Field stage to introduce the artists. As CMA Fest 2015 approached, I kept my eyes peeled for news from our favorite artists and/or celebrities. 

A couple weeks ago I found an opportunity to enter for a meet and greet with the Property Brothers, so I passed it along to Theresa. Unfortunately her contest entry went on deaf ears. 

As we sat at LP Field on night one, the Property Brothers appeared on stage yet again to introduce the talent for the night, and well... at this point... Theresa relieved me of my duties of being her friend. Seriously? It's not like I could call them up and invite them for tea or something! There was no way for me to redeem myself for something I had no control over. ;)

Now return to us standing inline at the KB meet and greet, chit-chatting, and checking social media. Low and behold, Theresa saw a notification on Twitter from the Property Brothers about a noon meet and greet at the HGTV Lodge! But wait, the KB line we were standing in wouldn't even start moving until noon!

Have no fear, our feet were made for walking and being within the first 20 people inline for KB, we had plenty of time for Theresa to stalk the Property Brothers. I also met the twins, and even got a chance to chat with them as there was a random pause in the photograph line. They were extremely nice and have fantastic smiles! 

After relaxing at the hotel late afternoon and filling our bellies, we headed back to LP Field for the 3rd night. Below is the photo I tweeted at Chevy in hopes of winning the upgrade seats. As you can judge by the photos below, we did not win the upgrade.

This was the night we met the bird poop culprit. The culprit, a beautiful hawk that came soaring in and perched itself where my finger is pointing, with it's but facing the seats. That stinker!

Wynonna Judd kicked off the night. I was pretty excited to get to see her, but was sadly disappointed. The mix of sound was not music to my ears. The bass and drums were so loud that it drowned out her voice. Really... how do you do that, she has such a huge voice?!?!

Theresa was tasked with another year of being in charge of the selfies. This night she text one of them to her husband Jim, who just happened to be sitting with my brother at a Peoria Chiefs game. Theresa kindly requested a selfie of Jim and Tom, but we were denied!

I promptly text Tom a "You Bum!" text and just about demanded a selfie.

I got the best laugh out of this photo. Tom captured a selfie with Carol. She ushers at the Peoria Chiefs games, worked there when I did in 2002 and takes swim classes with my Grandpa. This pic was just Classic!!!

Next up on stage was Chris Young, who we did not get to see last year because he injured himself prior to his performance. I gave him two awards this night.

Most fans blinded during one song! Please note that the photo below only captured about a 10th of the lights. There was one point it which all lights on stage were directed at the audience. Kind of like the glow of Christmas lights for the movie Christmas Vacation.

Chris also won the award for best firefly audience participation. Wish this translated better to a cell phone photo.

We then enjoyed a set by Thomas Rhett and Brett Eldredge before Little Big Town took the stage. It was during LBT's first song, that we finally realized there was a small stage 1/3 of the way into the crowd on the floor. Their band was on the main stage playing, the side screens only showing a CMA logo, and I couldn't understand why they were singing off-stage. I believe it was Theresa who finally put two and two together.

I'm still shaking my head about that small stage. It took us 2.5 nights to realize this. No other artists had used the stage up to that point, but I believe there were many an introduction taking place from that stage. I recall seeing the empty main stage, CMA logo, and mystery voice from backstage several times each night. Yes, I know, quality!

Wanting to leave on a good note (thanks to Little Big Town's performance), and avoid parking lot hell, we stumbled over our neighbors yet again and headed home. This night, we missed Carrie Underwood. Say what you will, but have you left the CMA Fest after the last act before???