When Drew Holcomb and Paul Steele conceived the Moon River Festival in 2014 as a way to play music with some friends and show off their hometown of Memphis, they couldn't have guessed that it would outgrow the 3,500-capacity Levitt Shell. Or that they would turn over producing the event to AC Entertainment and move it to Chattanooga. Or that it would become big enough to bring Nickle Creek out of its semi-retirement. Or that the group's Grammy-winning mandolinist Chris Thile would also bring his "Live from Here" show to town as part of the festival.
But all of that has happened - or will.
As part of this year's Moon River Festival in Coolidge Park, Thile will reunite with his Nickle Creek bandmates, brother and sister Sara and Sean Watkins. Thile is also the host of the variety radio show that replaced Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," and it will be broadcast live from Memorial Auditorium on Sept. 11, the night before this year's festival.
For the past two years, the Friday night pre-show was an added bonus for festival VIP ticket buyers, but this year it will be open to the general public.
Holcomb said in early February that the lineup for the Friday show had not been finalized but that the idea to do it here came out of talks with the band after they agreed to play the festival.
"We just kept asking 'What else can you do to make this special?'"
He has been a fan, and later, friends, with the band since first seeing them in 2002 while a student at UTK. "They played there at Covenant College [on Lookout Mountain] and we drove down to see them," Holcomb says.
"This will be really fun. We were just trying to create a unique and once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans."
These are the kind of extra fan experiences festival-goers now expect when they buy a ticket. They are also likely part of the reason the 11,000 tickets sell out within hours each year.
Other headliners for this year's September festival are Sheryl Crow, Shovels & Rope, Billy Strings, Dawz, Robert Earl Keen, Colony House, Ben Rector, Natalie Hemby and more.
But six months is a long time to wait. Here are some shows coming this month:
March 3 at Memorial Auditorium: Joe Bonamassa
March 4 at Songbirds North: Minnesota
March 5 at Walker Theatre: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
March 7 at Memorial Auditorium: Paul Belcher Southern Gospel Concert
March 10 at Memorial Auditorium: Heart Strings for Hope
March 12 at Walker Theatre: Marc Broussard
March 13 at Tivoli Theatre: Harry Connick Jr.
March 13 at Walker Theatre: Yonder Mountain String Band
March 18 at Walker Theatre: Blue October
March 18 at Songbirds Guitar Museum: Andrew Duhon
March 20 at Songbirds South: Eric Johnson Classics: Present and Past
March 21 at Walker Theatre: Sam Bush and The Travelin' McCourys
March 27 at Songbirds North: Striking Matches featuring a 1958 Gibson ES 335
March 28 at Songbirds North: The Subdudes
March 29 at Tivoli Theatre: Darci Lynne Farmer