Moon River Music Festival Wraps 5th Year with Record Attendance; Brandi Carlile & Jason Isbell Headline

Moon River Music Festival just wrapped their second sold-out year in Chattanooga, TN with record attendance over the two-day event in Coolidge Park September 7th and 8th. The magical weekend featured performances by Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit who headlined Saturday's line-up that also included St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Moon Taxi, Drew & Ellie Holcomb, Josh Ritter, The New Respects, Lady Wray, The Oh Hellos, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, and Devon Gilfillian and recent Grammy Award winner Brandi Carlile who closed out Sunday's line-up that featured The Lone Bellow, Goodbye Road (Feat. Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, JOHNNYSWIM, Penny & Sparrow), Rayland Baxter, The Wood Brothers, Cedric Burnside, The Suffers, The Band Camino, Birdtalker, and The Brook & The Bluff.

The weekend ended with an incredible moment shared by all when Carlile invited festival founder Drew Holcomb to join her on stage along with The Lone Bellow for a stirring rendition of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery."

Having Brandi Carlile close out Moon River Music Festival on Sunday night was one of the highlights of my career. She is a legend for a hundred different reasons. I wept quietly to myself as she covered Joni Mitchell's "Case of You" and then sang my heart out to her and the twins (Tim and Phil Hanseroth) to "Sugartooth" and so many other ridiculously well-written songs. Of course, having Natalie Hemby jump up for some of The Highwomen jams was incredible too. But singing "Angel from Montgomery" with them and our friends The Lone Bellow was the highlight for me. Thanks for always having a "Crowded Table" my friend.

Also want to thank our other headliner Jason Isbell for a torch-bearing set on Saturday night. He was also quite the gentleman when he stopped the show mid-song to help someone in the crowd who needed medical assistance. Classy as can be, and one of the finest songwriters alive. Appreciate you treating our people well! - Drew Holcomb

This year marked the fifth for Moon River Music Festival which was founded by Drew Holcomb in his hometown of Memphis, TN in 2014. Holcomb partnered with AC Entertainment last year and they moved the event to Chattanooga. 2019 not only marked the festival's highest attendance numbers with more than 24,000 festivalgoers over Saturday and Sunday, but had AC Entertainment and Holcomb making some adjustments, improvements and additions based on feedback from last year. One of the added highlights was The Treehouse - a special nook near the carousel and splash pad that was kid focused that had stations set up by Songbird Foundation offering guitar lessons for kids, Tambourine Crafts with St. Jude, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and more as well as activities and performances specially designed for kids including Kid's Yoga and "SING! with Ellie Holcomb."P

Photo credit: Eli Johnson