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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CMA Fest raises $2.5 million for music education
Before eager country music fans packed the Riverfront Stage and the big stage at Nissan Stadium lit up for the opening night of the CMA Fest, a local high school marching band turned heads in downtown Nashville. The Ravenwood High School marching band, known as The Rhythmic Ravens, lined up outside Music City Center before marching into the Fan Fair X space on June 5. Police vehicles moved out of the way to clear the view. Friends, family and perfect strangers gathered to watch as the band played. And Tiffany Kerns, the executive director of the CMA Foundation, said she got teary-eyed as she watched it all unfold. "I just can't help but have a sense of pride for them," Kerns said. "Everyone's proud. Everyone has their phones out. Everyone's taking video. It's like, 'Oh, we're all parents right now.'" This year, the festival brought in $2.5 million that will help power music education for kids like the Rhythmic Ravens in Tennessee and nationwide, Kerns said. A lesser-known fact about the annual CMA Fest is that artists donate their time to the festival and ticket proceeds go to the CMA Foundation. The nonprofit arm of the County Music Association was established in 2011 to partner with schools and music educators, provide grants and build equity in music education programs. Ticket sales aren't the only thing that benefit the foundation during CMA Fest, Kerns said. Some artists sell merchandise that also goes toward the cause. Country music star Carly Pearce took a step further by cleaning out her closet and selling her clothes during a special "Carly's Closet" pop-up on Saturday. Eager fans lined up to get some swag and catch a performance by the "Hummingbird" singer. Organizers said the event brought in $25,000 this year, making it the largest one to date. The Rhythmic Ravens were the first of several performances that featured students during this year's festival, which drew tens of thousands to Nashville. Other students on the lineup included New Orleans musicians from nonprofit Roots of Music, the Riverdale High School marching band, the Stratford High School marching band, Nashville School of the Arts student and songwriter Kingston Kharif, a rock band from Percy Priest Elementary and others. Opinion: My music students will play at CMA Fest. More kids need this opportunity Kerns hopes the experience the kids have at CMA Fest sticks with them for years to come. "Seeing the way that it brings joy to young people is a real gift," Kerns said. Learn more about the CMA Foundation and its work at This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: CMA Fest 2025: $2.5 million raised for music education
Axios
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Nashville's CMA Fest doubles as a four-day music education fundraiser
CMA Fest is taking over downtown Nashville this week, but the event is more than 2 square miles of country music nirvana. It's also a sprawling four-day fundraiser. Why it matters: The CMA Foundation has pumped more than $30 million of festival earnings into music education around the nation. More than half of that total supported K-12 programs in Tennessee. Organizers expect to raise another $2.5 million for the cause during this year's festival. Between the lines: Research shows that music education improves mental health, boosts academic performance and primes kids to become good community members. More than 300 artists perform across the festival's 10 stages. They all donate their time to boost contributions to the cause. What they're saying: CMA Foundation executive director Tiffany Kerns tells Axios that is indicative of "how generous and philanthropic" the genre as a whole can be. "It's one of the things that I love saying to someone when they say, 'Oh, I don't love country music.'" "I'm like, 'Well, let me have you fall in love with the humans behind it that are doing so much good.'" Zoom out: Foundation funding goes toward a wide array of programming, stretching far beyond the boundaries of country music. Funds support K-12 marching bands, rock bands, choirs, mariachi groups and after-school programs for studio engineering. The intrigue: CMA Fest will give students in some of the foundation-backed programs a chance to perform for the tens of thousands of fans expected to attend the festival daily. Marching bands from Ravenwood High School and Stratford STEM Magnet High School are scheduled to perform, as is a student singer-songwriter from Nashville School of the Arts. The Roots of Music marching band from New Orleans, which has gotten foundation funding for nearly a decade, will perform Sunday at Nissan Stadium. They'll take the stage alongside country star Ashley McBryde and are expected to appear on the festival's television special later this month. The bottom line:"I want people to see it more than just this headline that's like, 'CMA Fest is happening — traffic is going to be bad,'" Kerns says. "I want them to really understand that it's actually this beautiful event that is providing so much opportunity for people."
