Thursday a common ground was country night. It started out on a high note with talented artists on the Sparrow and Pavilion stages the headliner, of course was Tim McGraw on the Auto Value Main Stage scheduled to come on at 9:30 PM.
The crowd was thick on this Thursday night full of Cowboy hats and cowboy boots. families young and old in lawn chairs and people standing for hours get a good spot by the front.
Drew Hale opened up the Sparrow stage, as the crowd was just starting to thicken. Maggie Rose took to the Auto Value main stage at six pm to an already large crowd. Her forty five min set was well received by the crowd and she put on a terrific performance.
I strolled over to the Pavillion stage to watch Matt Austin, a Detroit, MI native, his forty-five minute set contained his newest single “Bad Feeling” and his debut single “Summer I’ll Always Remember.” Austins charm showed thru during his set and his clear voice carried out through the crowd. I look forward to seeing him perform again in the future.
Cassadee Pope hit the Auto Value main stage Thursday night for an hour long set. She opened up with “Edge of a Thunderstrom” which was followed by “Summer” Cassadee entertained the crowd, interacting with them keeping a great connection with her audience. She was very impressive to me, as I was seeing her for the first time. I truly believe she was one of my favorite performers of the weekend. She is a very talented singer.
Faux Grass and Billy Strings performed on the Sparrow stage to a large audience sitting on the steps enjoying the shade on this hot and muggy evening. The last act I was able to photograph on Thursday night was Jericho Woods, The five piece Kentucky Country Rock band was also one of my favorites of the entire festival. They performed some of their debut album Same Ol’ Dirt, including the single “Memphis,” “Clearcut,” and “She Don’t Need Me Anymore.” I hope to catch this band another time soon.
The headliner of the night was Tim McGraw, who didn’t allow any photography. He was scheduled to come on at 9:30 but the show was delayed due to a severe thunderstorm causing the festival grounds to be temporarily evacuated by the Lansing Police Department for a short period to the parking garage at Lansing Community College. McGraw did eventually take the stage for a shortened set and ended abruptly at Eleven PM. McGraw shared this message from his Instagram account.
The night didn’t go as most people planned and some people lost their front row spots due to the evacuation but it went as smoothly as it could with as large crowd of a crowd as they had Thursday night.
