The lineup at ShoalsFest 2025 included headliners Jackson Browne plus Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman and Garrison Starr. It's common at events in the Shoals to focus on songwriters and one of the songwriter sessions at ShoalsFest 2025 featured octogenarians Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham - a pair who frequently grace songwriter showcase events and who love to tell the stories relating to their hits like Cry Like a Baby, I'm Your Puppet, Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, and The Dark End of the Street.
One of the highlights of ShoalsFest 2025 for us included the Songwriters in the Round session with Patterson Hood, Jason Isbell, and Chris Tompkins. All three songwriters grew up in the Green Hill/Shoals area, Lauderdale County, and all knew each other back in the day. Green Hill is about 30 minutes north-east of the Shoals, just shy of the state line between Alabama and Tennessee, and Lauderdale was a dry county when these artists were young, so they would often play in various bars just over the state line in Tennessee. In a recent University of North Alabama interview, John Paul White recollects that he met Isbell when his band played at the same state line bar as a band Isbell was playing in, which also included Gary Nichols and Chris Tompkins. Some years later, Isbell played with Hood in the Drive-By Truckers for six years until early 2007, and this common heritage among the songwriters carried through to their camaraderie on stage. According to John Paul White, songwriter, “Chris Tompkins is probably the most successful of all of us” - he’s had 16 #1 hits including Before He Cheats, won two Grammys plus Songwriter of the Year by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2007. The artists swapped stories plus old and new songs, keeping the crowd enthralled along the way.
Headliner Jackson Browne’s show was fantastic. The 77-year old has not lost his voice, his guitar skills, or his charisma. His setlist included Looking East, The Long Way Around, Your Bright Baby Blues, Until Justice Is Real, I Am a Patriot, The Barricades of Heaven, Redneck Friend, These Days, Somebody's Baby, Doctor My Eyes, Late for the Sky, Running on Empty and Take It Easy / Our Lady of the Well. It was an inspired show with just the right balance of timely political/activist songs and his super hits. The sound for his show was excellent and the rumor is that he used his own sound team and you could definitely hear the difference with his set - Browne’s voice was in front of the instrumentation and not muddied by it, but crystal clear. We’ve seen plenty of artists who made their names in the 1960s and 1970s like Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, as well as Crosby, Stills and Nash. However, Browne's performance was one of the best concerts we’ve heard in a long time.
As for the setup at ShoalsFest 2025, there is a general admission area that allows lawn chairs behind a ‘chair line’ but much of this area was in full sun for a fair proportion of the day. Some parts of the general admission area are set amongst the Alabama pines and this shaded area is still reasonably close to the stage plus there is a large moshpit area directly in front of the stage which attracts a crowd for the major acts. It's a two-day, open air festival and luckily in 2025, the weather was sunny and warm for both days; however, this may have created an issue for those in the crowd who have skin cancer issues and are reluctant to sit out in the full sun despite hats and sunscreen. Access to food, bars and facilities was within easy walking distance and the location down on the Tennessee River surrounded by Alabama pines is delightful. The festival has a friendly, small town atmosphere for attendees but a drawback of the setup for artists is that, on a sunny day, they play looking into the setting sun.
There is a VIP ticket holders/sponsors enclosure; however, being a sponsor of ShoalsFest 2025 was an interesting experience that we won’t repeat. We spent an exasperating hour or more on both days hunting for seats. The VIP ticket holders/sponsors enclosure features a grassed area plus a moshpit and also a raised deck with a good view of the stage from its vantage point above a stretch of beach on the banks of the Tennessee River. Benefits for VIP ticket holders and sponsors included complementary tasty morsels provided by local restaurant Odette, some free merch, and of course, the almost obligatory over-priced bar but not necessarily seating.
Limited seating has been an ongoing issue since the first ShoalsFest. In fact, comments relating to the festival map on a Facebook post reveal that ShoalsFest 2019 rules were changed to allow GA attendees to bring their own lawn chairs/blankets to sit on so that they didn't have to stand the entire time. The post includes the note: “Outside chairs will not be allowed in the VIP area, however, limited seating options will be available there.” Needless to say, “limited seating” prompted heaps of negative comments which were invariably countered by ShoalsFest standard reply: “This was never advertised as a seated event and VIP never guaranteed seating. That said, you should have no problem finding a seat in VIP.” In reality, we found it to be highly problematic to find seating as did many of the VIPs and sponsors that we know, including people in their 60s or older, one of whom had recently had back surgery. We spent more than an hour on both days hunting for seats.
At ShoalsFest, attendees need to be aware of the festival's #1 rule: “no bad attitude”. This rule makes any complaint about seating or anything else problematic as it may prompt a run-in or worse with the organizers, who have been known to throw out attendees who they deem to have a bad attitude. As for the seating issue, it would behoove the organizers of ShoalsFest to effectively address this issue for VIP ticket holders and sponsors. The benefits of return customers such as sponsors and VIP ticket buyers are a valuable and important cohort in a music festival business context because of lower acquisition costs. That is, it costs significantly less to encourage a happy, satisfied cohort of VIP ticket holders and sponsors to return each year than it does acquiring new ones. Look after this cohort and they’ll not only advocate the benefits of the festival but return each and every year to support the festival. A guaranteed seat for this cohort would be a good start.
A quick survey of similar festivals indicates that the offerings for VIP ticket holders and sponsors at ShoalsFest falls short of what's on offer at other festivals, where seating is always included in addition to a range of other benefits. Given the somewhat older demographic of this cohort at ShoalFest, seating should be a higher priority than complementary t-shirts and posters. For context, here are the VIP/sponsor offerings for three other similar music festivals and full disclosure, we paid $5,000 for ShoalsFest sponsorship in 2025:
BluesFest 2025 Australia - VIP package $2,390 (includes festival tickets)
- VIPs priority entry at both the North and South gates
- VIP Lounge with extra seating + house band playing between sets
- Specially designed viewing platform in the VIP area which allows guests to see performances in the Crossroads tent
- Food plus beverages including margaritas and other cocktails
- VIP Lounge features premium amenities
- https://www.bluesfest.com.au/vip-lounge-experience
New York State Blues Festival 2026 - ‘Blues Partners’ $5,000. Benefits include:
- Prominent stage mentions during breaks and prior to band performing
- Company name/logo on LED screens several times a day
- Company logo on stage banner
- Company name/logo on festival signage
- Featured on festival social media accounts
- Sponsorship logo and website link on the festival website
- VIP parking, preferred seating near the main stage, meal vouchers, beer and wine included, VIP tented area
- https://www.nysbluesfest.com/downloads/2025_NYSBF_Sponsorship_Packages.pdf
Tampa Bay Blues Festival 2026 - Three Day Blues Club VIP $800; Single Day VIP Packages $350
- Entry to the festival, with access to special front stage seating, located directly in front of the main stage
- The VIP seating area also features a custom sound mix
- Two large VIP shade tents, with tables and chairs, plus views of Tampa Bay
- Complimentary meal offered each day in the VIP area
- Beverages including free beers, wines, sodas and spring water. A private cash drinks bar is also provided.
- Upscale, air conditioned restrooms
- Complimentary champagne and mimosas served on Sunday afternoon.
- https://www.tampabaybluesfest.com/vip.php
References
What it's really like to work in the music industry - John Paul White [video]. UNA Talks series. Interview with Lee Taylor, University of North Alabama. Accessible at https://youtu.be/9pkn52FP1NE?si=QfamGM3vH-ONvkOS
ShoalsFest, Facebook post, 1 October 2019. Accessible at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CPQAQNHbb/