For the first time ever, Jacksonville had a country music festival that took place at Everbank Field. This is the first time ever that a concert was held at the stadium, and it was just pretty cool to see the stadium fill up with masses of country music fans. It was like watching the stands fill up much like what is seen at a Jaguars game only this was way more people and it was a music performance. The people tailgating were having tons of fun and were excitedly waiting for the shows. While waiting for the concerts to start, there was a Fan Fair fest going on outside of Everbank field where there were bands such as Clark Hill, Grayson Rogers Band, Matt Bailie and many others; they were like the “opening acts” for the headliners to come. Florida Country Superfest was a great event for Jacksonville. It did have a lot of good moments, but there were some flaws with the festival that occurred on the first day. Here are my observations of the good moments.

Let’s start with the lineup on the first day. The lineup for Saturday had good acts performing  such as Colt Ford, Little Big Town, Eric Church and Jason Aldean. Colt Ford was first, and he started the festival with songs like “Chicken & Biscuits” and “High Life”. He is more of a country rapper and is very diverse from all the other artists. 
After his performance, out came Little Big Town who opened up with “Little White Church” and kept the show going with hits like “Sober”, “Boondocks”, and their smash hit “Pontoon”. This band has gotten more popular since 2012 and is still attracting fans to this day. They are one of the best country vocal groups ever. 
Eric Church took the stage next, and he kept the great show going. I instantly liked this guy from the first time I saw him at CMA Fest just a week ago. His show had pyro and sparks and the way he used them for his stage presence was awesome. He opened up his show with the song “The Outsiders”, and he continued playing his best songs “Creepin”, “Put a Drink In My Hand”, “Give Me Back My Hometown”, “Springsteen” and closed with “Smoke a Little Smoke”. 
Closing out the first night was Jason Aldean. He started with “Hicktown” and played his best songs such as “My Kind Of Party”, “Night Train”, “Take A Little Ride”. Near the end of the show he played “Dirt Road Anthem” and got the crowd excited with Colt Ford joining alongside him. Jason later on closed with “Crazy Town” and came back to do an encore and ended the night with “She’s County”. I thought Jason was great but I give Eric Church the “thumbs up” for having had the best show of the night. 

Now on to the not so great moments of the festival.  Just before the concert was about to start, the crowd was asked to seek shelter due to a passing thunderstorm which delayed the show for almost 2 hours. Of course, you can’t blame the rain; it’s a big part of Florida weather.  Since it was just a rain shower, I thought we would be able to go back out into the stadium; unfortunately we were still asked to stay indoors. 
Another disappointment on the first day was the cancellation of one of the starting acts for Superfest. Big & Rich’s performance was cancelled and the fans were not told about it. After Colt Ford performed, the show went straight to Little Big Town without any notice about why Big & Rich were not on stage. It really disappointed many fans, myself included, since I was looking forward to seeing them play all weekend. I think the promoters for Superfest should have made an announcement when there was a cancellation; they could have notified fans at the venue or on social media. Communication to the crowd is all the fans ask for.  

Day 2 of Florida Country Superfest was a new day, and thankfully, no storms. There were also some surprises in store for the fans that day. Joe Nichols started the day off with his song “Broken Heartsville”.  He gave his best with his songs “Yeah”, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off”, and closed out with his summer song “Sunny and 75”. 
Next on stage was Easton Corbin who grew up in Florida and played his songs “Clockwork”, “Lovin You Is Fun”, “Roll With It”, and closed out with “All Over The Road”. I thought his performance was fine but underwhelming. Not much to say, but his stage presence was just there. 
After Easton wrapped up, the fans started to get on their feet when Florida Georgia Line came on. They kicked off their set with “It’s Just What We Do”. Many people loved them, and the first surprise of the festival was Luke Bryan joining them on their collaboration of “This Is How We Roll”. Although since he was already there, the crowd was kind of expecting him to be performing with them. They brought a lot of energy to the stage, and since it was Father’s Day, they made a toast to all the dads including their drummer who is going to be a dad on Monday. They closed out with their song “Cruise” and kept the fans on their feet for the next act………
Miranda Lambert. Miranda kicked off her performance with “Fastest Girl In Town”. She kept the show going with new songs from her newly released album “Platinum” such as “Automatic”, “Platinum”, “Little Red Wagon”, and “Priscilla”. Overall her performance of her songs got the girls in the crowd on their feet. I do like her music, and the message in her music is that gentlemen need to be good to their women and treat them right.
After all the performers went on, everybody was excited for Luke Bryan to close the festival. He started out with his opening number “That’s My Kind Of Night” and kept it going with “Rain Is A Good Thing”. In the middle of the show the crowd got more surprises; Luke Bryan brought out Jason Aldean to perform “The Only Way I Know” and “She’s Country”. And that’s not all:  Luke also brought out Miranda Lambert to do a Shenandoah cover “Sunday in the South”. He kept everybody going with his songs including “Drink A Beer”, “Crash My Party”, “Drunk On You”, and closed out the show with “I Don’t Want This Night To End”. He came back to do an encore with “Play It Again”, and ended the show with “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)”. A great performance from all the country stars!

Overall the festival was AWESOME!. People really enjoyed the acts and had a great time with all the performers. If this becomes a regular event, some of the planning needs to be fixed mostly in the behind the scenes area. We will see what happens the next time when we have our second concert at Everbank field in July when Carrie Underwood comes to town.