CMA Awards 2026: A Nashville Local's Guide to the 60th Annual Show

Paul Whitten
3 days ago
5 min read

By Paul Whitten, Founder of Nashville Adventures

Once a year, on a single November night, the entire country music world folds itself into a few square blocks of downtown Nashville. Private jets stack up at the airport. Broadway somehow gets even louder. And a red carpet rolls out at Bridgestone Arena.

That night is the CMA Awards 2026, and this one is a big deal even by Nashville standards. It is the 60th annual show, a diamond anniversary for the awards that helped turn this town into the center of an entire genre.

I lead history tours right past the arena for a living, so I get the same question every fall: what actually happens during CMA Awards week, and can a regular person be part of it? Let me walk you through it like I would on the sidewalk.

What Is the 60th Annual CMA Awards?

The 60th Annual CMA Awards airs live on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, from Bridgestone Arena in the heart of downtown Nashville. It broadcasts on ABC that night and streams the next day on Hulu, so you can watch from a couch anywhere in the country.

Bridgestone is the big glass arena on Broadway that normally hosts the Nashville Predators and arena tours. For one night it becomes the most famous stage in country music, packed with close to twenty thousand people watching the genre hand out its top honors: Entertainer of the Year, along with the album, single, and vocalist awards.

As of this writing, the Country Music Association has confirmed the date, the venue, and the network, but the host and the performer lineup have not been announced yet. Those usually drop in the weeks leading up to the show, so it is worth checking the official CMA Awards site as November gets closer.

National Museum of African American Music on Broadway near Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville

CMA Awards vs. CMA Fest: They Are Not the Same Thing

Here is the mix-up I clear up most often. The CMA Awards and CMA Fest are two completely different events run by the same organization.

CMA Fest is the four-day summer festival in June, all daytime stages and stadium nights and sunburns. The CMA Awards is the formal, black-tie awards broadcast in November. One is a marathon of live music in the heat. The other is one glittering evening in the cold.

If you came to town for the June festival, that was CMA Fest. What lands on November 18 is the awards show, and the energy is a different animal: fewer wristbands, more tuxedos, and a downtown that feels like it is holding its breath for a few hours.

Can You Actually Get Inside?

Let me be straight with you, because I would rather you hear it from a local. Tickets to sit inside Bridgestone for the CMA Awards are genuinely hard to come by. A large share go to industry members, nominees, and their guests, and the public seats that do surface tend to move fast and run expensive through official channels and travel packages.

So most people do not experience the CMA Awards from a seat in the arena. They experience it from downtown, and that is not a consolation prize. It is arguably the better ticket.

On show night, Lower Broadway turns into a spontaneous celebration. Artists and their crews spill out of the arena and into the honky-tonks. There is a long-running tradition called Country Late Night, where celebrities and special guests make the two-block walk from Bridgestone to Blake Shelton's Ole Red on Broadway for food, drinks, and surprise performances after the broadcast wraps. Stand in the right spot and you will see stars walking by on foot.

How to Spend CMA Awards Week in Nashville

The smartest move is to treat the whole week as the event, not just the three-hour broadcast. Downtown hums for days on either side of the show.

Here is how I tell visitors to play it:

Get downtown early on the 18th. The plaza around Bridgestone Arena buzzes for hours before showtime. Watch the arrivals, feel the crowd, and grab dinner before Broadway fills up.
Walk the honky-tonks after the broadcast. This is when the surprise sets happen. Artists celebrate where they came up, and you never know who steps onto a small stage at midnight.
Book your daytime plans in advance. Hotels and restaurants tighten up fast during CMA week, so lock in reservations and tours before you arrive.
Learn the streets in daylight. The stories behind these buildings hit harder when you actually know them, which is where a good walking tour earns its keep.

If you want the history underneath all that neon, our Nashville walking tour connects the arena and Lower Broadway to the studios, stages, and hard-luck stories that built country music in the first place. For a look at everything happening that week, Visit Music City keeps a running events calendar worth a bookmark.

RCA Studio B on Music Row, one of the Nashville studios that built country music

Why the 60th Matters

A 60th anniversary is not just a round number. It is a marker of how far this town has come, from a scrappy radio broadcast in a church-turned-auditorium to a global industry with its own diamond-anniversary awards show.

Sarah Trahern, who has led the Country Music Association as CEO through the modern era, framed the milestone this way ahead of the show:

"Country Music is shaped by the people who dedicate their lives to it, whether on stage, in the studio, on the road, or behind the scenes. At CMA, celebrating that work is at the heart of everything we do. Across our awards and honors, it is this community that determines what excellence looks like, and in our 60th year, I hope every member of this industry truly understands the significance of that." (via CMA)

That community she is talking about did not build itself in an arena. It built itself in the studios of Music Row, on the stage of the Ryman, and in the songwriter rooms scattered across this city. The awards show is just the night we all get to see it dressed up.

Frequently Asked Questions

When are the CMA Awards 2026?

The 60th Annual CMA Awards take place on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, at Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. The ceremony airs live on ABC and streams the following day on Hulu.

Where are the CMA Awards held?

The CMA Awards are held at Bridgestone Arena on Lower Broadway in downtown Nashville, the same venue that hosts the Nashville Predators. It has been the home of the awards show for years.

Are the CMA Awards and CMA Fest the same event?

No. CMA Fest is a four-day country music festival held in June, while the CMA Awards is a formal awards ceremony broadcast in November. Both are produced by the Country Music Association, but they are separate events at different times of year.

Can the public attend the CMA Awards?

A limited number of public tickets are typically available through official channels and travel packages, but they sell out fast and run expensive. Many visitors instead enjoy the electric atmosphere downtown on show night, when artists celebrate throughout Lower Broadway.

See the Real Music City During CMA Week

The CMA Awards put a spotlight on Nashville for one night, but the stories that earned this town its title are here every single day, hiding in plain sight along the same streets.

Come to town for the 60th on November 18 and give yourself a morning to actually understand the place. Our Nashville walking tour turns Lower Broadway from a row of bars into a living history of the music, and if your nights run later, the Welcome to Nashville pub crawl walks the same ground with a drink in hand and a story at every stop.

CMA week fills the calendar fast, so this is a book-ahead situation. Browse all of our tours, get more ideas for what to do in Nashville, or reach out and we will build a day around your trip. Lock it in before the whole industry shows up and the city sells out.