If you live here, we don’t care that the name was changed to “CMA Music Fest.” To us, this week will always be “Fan Fair.” There are rock music festivals all over the U.S. every summer, like the infamous Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. But this festival is about country music and the fans that buy the records and support their favorite singers and bands.

This is the week that the country music industry thanks their fans by posing for pictures, signing autographs, giving concerts in the clubs and stadiums all over town, and meeting with their fan clubs for picnics, bowling tournaments, and cruises down the Cumberland River. The other music industries don’t do anything even close to this week long festival, and we don’t care that the industry is trying to bring in non-country acts. That’s fine. But the jist of this week is that the country music artists give a little back to the fans. And that’s the way it SHOULD be.