Summer is here & here’s what’s happening!

As most of you all know, we welcomed a sweet baby boy into the world in January of this year. I have been so blessed to be able to take these last few months and dedicate them (almost) entirely to him while my friends and fellow hosts, Alece and Natalie helped with our homes and communication with guests. But our little guy is getting bigger and has a more predictable schedule these days so we’ve decided it’s time for me to jump in again. With that, I am so excited to officially say… I’m back!

As of June 1, I’m back handling all guest communications, our social media and pretty much everything that happens on the computer again.  However, the partnership with Alece and Natalie went so well that we’ve decided to permanently join forces on a few things. In particular, after each cleaning and before the next guests’ arrival, we have always done a quality check, restock and setup for the incoming guest(s). With their keen eyes for detail, they’ll be continuing these for us. That said, I simply cannot stay away from the properties anymore so I will be onsite as well at least 1-2 times monthly at each property to go through our inventory, replace items as needed, redecorate, etc.  This allows me to still be incredibly hands on with our guests and homes but also to spend time with our kiddo! I am so excited about this structure and to be working with our guests again – I have truly have missed y’all!

My first order of “business” was to dig in and start preparing for a summer well spent! I know technically the calendar says that summer starts June 20 but let me tell you, it is already in full swing here in Nashville, Leiper’s Fork and around Middle Tennessee. We’ve had some beautiful 80-90 degree weather, in accordance with the CDC guidance the local mask order has been lifted, live music is back (beyond just Broadway), events are popping up … in short, there is a lot happening around us. I know we’re certainly looking to partake in a variety of summer activities and want our guests to be able to as well. Check out the amazing list of things to do in Nashville, Franklin, Leiper’s Fork and surrounding areas this summer:

Nashville Tours & Events:

• Tours are back! I was cautiously optimistic about things starting to get back to normal this year so just before we had the baby, I wrote a blog on some of our favorite tours. Yay! I was right and most are back in action. You can check out our favorites here:  https://www.southboundstays.com/blog/tours-worth-exploring/
• Movies in the Park:
  • Nashville: Thursdays in June at Elmington Park. These are FREE to attend and you can learn more here: https://www.fwpublishingevents.com/moviesinthepark2021
  • Franklin: Monthly between May through August. Also FREE to attend:  https://www.franklintn.gov/government/departments-k-z/parks/city-parks-events/movie-in-the-park
• Get your pool time on if you’re staying at one of our Melrose studios – the pool officially opened mid- May!
• Farmer’s Markets: I am a sucker for a good farmer’s market and we are so lucky to have several around us
  • Nashville: Every Tuesday afternoon is the 12 South Farmers Market. Learn more here: https://www.12southfarmersmarket.com/
  • Nashville Farmer’s Market is open daily with the Farm Shed open Friday through Sunday. They also have night markets consistently throughout summer. Learn more here: https://www.nashvillefarmersmarket.org/
  • Nashville: First Friday of each month is the East Nashville Night Market . Learn more here: https://www.facebook.com/EastNashvilleNightMarket
  • Franklin Farmers Market: Happening every Saturday at the Factory in Franklin. We frequent this one ourselves so you may see us there!  https://franklinfarmersmarket.com
  • Franklin: Westhaven Farmers market happens every Wednesday (close to our home, Lyric in Leiper’s Fork): https://www.facebook.com/westhavenFM/Franklin: New this year, is Five Points Franklin Farmer’s market and it’s happening every Tuesday afternoon now through September: https://www.facebook.com/FivePointsFranklinMarket/
• July 4^th: Nashville is BACK with a bang- literally. Our Let Freedom Sing Event will not only have Brad Paisley as the headliner but will also feature the LARGEST fireworks display in the US! Learn more about the event here: https://www.nashville.com/event/music-citys-4th-of-july-let-freedom-sing-nashville-tn/
• July 4^th: As if July 4^th in Nashville wasn’t spectacular enough, there is also a Music City Hot Chicken Festival happening that day at Shelby Park: https://www.hot-chicken.com/
• July 4^th: Franklin Fireworks and celebration details (more info to come from them on this link): https://www.franklintn.gov/?splash=http%3a%2f%2fwww.franklinjazzfestival.com%2f4th-of-july&____isexternal=true
• June 19^th: NASCAR makes its debut in Music City with the Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series at the Speedway. Learn more here: https://www.nashvillesuperspeedway.com/
• June 20^th: We just got done spoiling the moms (and I was so blessed to celebrate my first Mother’s Day as a mom) so now its dads turn. We have some amazing restaurants that we can recommend if you’re looking for somewhere amazing to celebrate. Let us know, we’ll be happy to make recommendations!
• July 13-19 is Burger week. Eat your weight in burgers around Nashville at the best burger joints in town! Learn more at: https://www.fwpublishingevents.com/burger-week
• July 31: For the beer lovers, you must check out Music City Brewers Festival (over 100 different samples). We did this a few years back and even in the pouring rain we had an absolute blast): https://www.musiccitybrewersfest.com/
• August 13-14: East Nashville’s Tomato Art Festival is a literal cannot miss. This is such a fun, quirky event that we love to stroll through every year. Be sure to get something “tomato” as a keepsake! https://www.tomatoartfest.com/. PS: You can walk to this from our East Nashville home, The Country Cottage!
• August 13- 14: Blended Fest (Food & Music Festival) is also new to Music City and I am so excited to try this one as it claims to blend the best of music, wine and food (literally our favorite things): https://www.blendedfestival.com/

MUSIC! Live Nashville Music beyond Broadway is back!

Of course, music on Broadway (Downtown Nashville) has been back for awhile so that’s always “on” but here are some of our favorites “off Broadway” that we highly suggest checking out. Unfortunately, there is so much popping up that I couldn’t list everything but I pulled some of our personal favorites.

• Full Moon Pickin’ Parties made me fall in love with Nashville summers. If you’re into pickin this is definitely a must. They have a live band on each months Full Moon throughout summer- typically they announce the actual dates at least a month out. Definitely buy tickets well in advance: https://www.warnerparks.org/events-to-attend/upcoming-events
• Concerts on the Farm, the home of Bonnaroo Music Festival (which is back this year at the beginning of September) is also adding concerts pretty regularly. Right now, they’ll have The Avett Brothers in July but keep watch as they seem to be adding constantly: https://www.bonnaroofarm.com/
• Ascend Amphitheater is open again and has a variety of shows/ concerts all summer long (y’all Kings of Leon, John Legend and even Jimmy Buffet to name a few). Tickets are a bit pricey but definitely watch for them to go on sale: https://www.livenation.com/venue/KovZpZAEet7A/ascend-amphitheater-events
• Musicians Corner at Centennial Park is one of our summertime favorites. Right now, they’ll have shows June 11-13 and then a Sundown series in September. We’ll be watching, though as I hope they’ll add more for July and August! Their calendar can be found here: https://musicianscornernashville.com/calendar
• Dear Music Festival is one I can’t claim to be a favorite… yet but that’s only because this is their first year here (or so I believe because I haven’t heard of it before and I’m usually pretty up on these things). I can tell you we definitely plan to be there, though and will report back but with this lineup and activities it seems like it’d be hard to go wrong: https://dearmusicnonprofit.org/dear-music-fest
• Anzie Blue is a locally owned coffee/ CBD/ cocktails restaurant that moved to Hillsboro Village last year (they were a bit further out from Downtown). They’re now dangerously close to my home so I frequent for their Whipped Match Latte and Blueberry Matchas + their unreal charcuterie boards. But really, you cannot go wrong with anything on their menu (please, do yourself a favor and try their Hot Chicken dip) and now they added live music to the mix. Check out their site for details but Thursdays through Sundays every week you can catch music at nights and on the weekends for brunch, too: https://www.anzieblue.com/
• Whiskey Jam is one that I wish we were cool enough to frequent but since its mid-week we don’t go nearly as much as we’d like. However, if you’re in town midweek I highly suggest trying to hit one of these events that happen select Mondays and Thursdays at Winners Bar in Midtown. Details and dates are on their facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/WhiskeyJam/
• June 6^th: Be sure to head to Franklin for their free, outdoor concert: https://visitfranklin.com/events/free-outdoor-sunday-concert

Sports:

Sports fans, this one’s for you! Football, soccer and baseball are here (well, almost).

• Nashville Sounds Games are happening all summer long. Even if you’re not that into baseball, you can partake in the huge outdoor bar area, miniature golf and more. We cannot wait to take Hagen to his first game soon- hope to see you there!   https://img.mlbstatic.com/milb-images/image/upload/milb/llvdazk0nlrikxf7hpjq.pdf
• Soccer has made its debut in Music City and there are games you can catch from now through November: https://www.nashvillesc.com/schedule/matches
• Tennessee Titans preseason games start August 13th! Get your tickets here: https://www.vividseats.com/nfl/tennessee-titans-tickets.html?vkid=29642041

Plan Ahead:

Hard to think that with summer just starting it will ever come to an end. But that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop (and here in Middle TN, it really never does)! Here are some weekends and events we suggest planning ahead for!

• Labor Day weekend (the last long weekend of the summer, Labor Day is September 6^th). At the time of posting, we still have availability at all of our homes for this weekend.
• September 7-11 : If cocktails are your thing, then watch for tickets to go on sale (July 7^th) for the Nashville Cocktail Festival: https://www.nashvillecocktailfestival.com/
• September 25-26 : Pilgrimage Festival is back this year (yay) and they have some huge names coming (The Black Keys, Dave Matthews Band, Maren Morris, https://pilgrimagefestival.com/. At the time of posting, we still have availability at all of our homes for this weekend, Lyric in Leiper’s Fork being our largest and closest to the Festival.

Great sites for more events:

• https://www.visitmusiccity.com/trip-ideas/12-food-events-summer
• http://nashvilleguru.com/nashville-events
• https://visitfranklin.com/events

As always, Southbound Stays would love to welcome you to our homes as you explore Nashville and/ or Leiper’s Fork. Have questions? Feel free to contact us!