Tim Love Stockyards Music Festival
Taking the stage at Tannahill’s on an early Wednesday morning, Tim Love — joined by Larry Joe Taylor, Zach Taylor, Live Nation’s Anthony Nicolaidis, and Texas Music Industry’s Brendon Anthony — announced a three-day music festival and conference that will head to the Stockyards next March.
Details about the newly christened Fort Worth Stockyards Music Festival were a little sparse — they said more information will come our way in early December — but the plan is to use nearby bars, restaurants, hotels, and music venues to host shows, speakers, and roundtables throughout the weekend.
Based on the information at hand, the festival is not so much an ACL but, rather, something more akin to Austin’s SXSW.
Partnering with Live Nation (those people who bring the know-how), the festival will provide a platform for up-and-coming Texas-based musicians.
“For speakers, we plan on having agents, managers, established artists who can give advice, and people who can help young artists grow their business,” Taylor told me after the event.
While they admittedly think the festival will initially attract artists who lean heavily into the country music genre, their plan is to eventually have a diverse representation of musical genres, including R&B, rock, hip-hop, and more.
According to Nicolaidis, the festival will start out small, maybe eight stages throughout the Stockyards. But, eventually, they want the festival to grow to 20-plus stages.
“We have the ability to have a united Stockyards,” Love said during the event. “We’ve got all these clubs that have never come together on their own, and I think we can do that for this festival. And, if it grows organically, we can add more clubs and more stages. We have about 20 stages we can fill.
“How great would it be to buy one ticket, go see a couple songs here, go see a couple songs there, walk down the street to have dinner, and go to another club to see a couple more songs there? If you’re a music fan, that’s really what you want to do, and I think we can accomplish that.”
The festival is set to begin March 1 and run through March 3. It didn’t appear to be a coincidence that Texas Independence Day falls smack dab in the middle of the festival.
