Country Bay Music Festival Makes a Case for Country in Miami

Salsa, reggaetón, EDM, hip-hop — when one thinks of music in Miami, country music is probably the last place the mind goes. But a new festival debuting this month at Miami Marine Stadium wants to change that.

Country Bay Music Festival wants to establish a destination festival for country music in Miami. Loud and Live, the promoters behind the event, have assembled a solid list of genre superstars and up-and-comers for the festival, which takes place at the venerable Key Biscayne venue on Saturday, November 11, and Sunday, November 12. Thomas Rhett, Sam Hunt, Chris Young, and Lee Brice are headliners. Among the four, they've amassed 56 number-one songs on Billboard's country charts. Joining them is Lainey Wilson, a fast-rising singer-songwriter from Louisiana. She was voted "New Artist of the Year" and "Female Vocalist of the Year" at the CMA Awards in 2022, and she recently joined the cast of the hit Western TV drama Yellowstone.

Aside from music, the festival will include plenty of amenities. A "Country Carnival" will feature a Ferris wheel, high swings, and other games and activities. A saloon will include a mechanical bull, and the "Boots and Beer Garden" area will broadcast football games for those who don't want to miss the weekend's NFL and college ball action. Lockers will be available for those who don't want to lose their personal effects while taking part in Lenny's line dancing. The company also offered a "BYOBoat" pass, allowing purchasers to dock their boats and watch the festival. It has completely sold out.

"Miami as a market has been underserved from a country music standpoint," says Nelson Albareda, CEO of Loud and Live, which runs concerts, festivals, and events for brands. The company produced Inter Miami's unveiling ceremony for Lionel Messi earlier this year and will put on the Christmas Wonderland holiday experience in Tropical Park this month. Albareda believes Country Bay has the potential to grow into a destination festival for country music, similar to what Ultra does for EDM and Rolling Loud for hip-hop.

"We're seeing this with a lot of our concerts in Miami, where we're pulling people from all over the world who will travel to spend a weekend in Miami and enjoy music. I think it's no different with Country Bay."

Although Loud and Live has been planning Country Bay since before the pandemic, it's introducing the event at an opportune moment. Country music is having a moment on the Billboard Hot 100, including breaking the record for most country songs in the Top 50 in a single week (March 18-24). Crossover hits, including Morgan Wallen's "Last Night" and "I Remember Everything" by Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves, have reached number one, and Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's 1988 breakout hit "Fast Car" reached number two. Taylor Swift, perhaps the biggest country crossover artist of them all, has been breaking records with her Eras Tour. Her recent re-recording of 2010's Speak Now, which first came out just before she transitioned more fully to pop music, immediately went to number one on the Top 200 Albums Chart in July and broke Spotify's record for most single-day streams.
Still, the genre hasn't completely shaken its outsiders-aren't-welcome bent. Earlier this year, Jason Aldean stoked controversy with his song and accompanying music video "Try That In a Small Town," which critics said contained racist iconography and ideas. Conservatives, however, embraced the song and successfully campaigned for it to go to number one on the Hot 100 through digital download purchases. Then they did it again the following week with "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony. The incident has been compared with the Korean practice of sajaegi, a tactic used by desperate K-pop fans to game the charts system and push their favorites to the top.

Aldean doesn't represent the current country status quo, however. He's considered a relic of the Bush era when the Dixie Chicks were infamously pushed off the air for criticizing the Iraq War, and Toby Keith released jingoistic anthems like "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." The new generation of country tends to be more expressive and conversational, favored by younger listeners who prefer personal songwriting over patriotic exhortation. They're also listening on streaming sites like Spotify rather than the more traditional country radio.

That new audience is also more diverse, according to Albareda. "Over 30 percent of country music fans in the U.S. identify themselves as of Latino origin," he says. "I see a lot of similarities, culturally, between country and Latin, right? It's all storytelling when you listen to a country song; same thing with Latin. Family loyalty is part of the fabric of country music, and it's also a part of the fabric of Latin. So I think it goes very well with where we're at in Miami as a city and how Miami is becoming a global hub for music."

Albareda believes the assumption that country music appeals mainly to white people is incorrect, an argument supported by research from the Country Music Association, which saw a 25 percent increase in Hispanic listenership. The country-adjacent Latin genre of regional Mexican music has also exploded in popularity, with artists like Peso Pluma gaining Hot 100 hits, mainly through streaming.

"Country is doing a crossover into the mainstream, very similar to what's happening with Latin music on a global level," Albareda observes. "And we thought that it was right to bring a country music festival to Miami."

That appeal extends to locals, as both visitors and performers. Leo Brooks, a longtime country music fan and instrumentalist, will perform at the festival with his group Neon Union. Brooks was born and raised in Miami and remembers hearing records by George Jones and Hank Williams, played by his Honduran family members during his childhood.

"I never thought, you know, being from Miami, that I would have a chance to do country music, something that I love," Brooks says. "I was afraid, like, 'Why's this Black guy gonna try to country?' You know, from people in Miami, because they're not used for that."

Brooks worked as a bass player for Pitbull for more than a decade and says the rapper encouraged him to pursue a career in country music. He says Neon Union was started with encouragement from Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts and that the group has had support within the country music community. He's also seen fans embrace country music more broadly, especially Latin folks.

"Country's getting way bigger now," he says. "It's pretty popular now, I've seen, and more and more people are getting open to it."

Country Bay Music Festival. With Thomas Rhett, Sam Hunt, Chris Young, Lainey Wilson, and others. Saturday, November 11, and Sunday, November 12, at Miami Marine Stadium, 3501 Rickenbacker Cswy., Miami; countrybaymusicfestival.com. Tickets cost $143 to $1,899.