Why Music City is the best place to celebrate the Fourth of July

Everyone knows that Nashville’s fame and popularity has recently sky rocketed in the past five years. However, I bet you didn’t know that it boasts the largest Fourth of July firework show in the whole country – even outdoing cities like New York, who have nearly eight times as many citizens.

My family has always lived in Nashville, and we went downtown for the firework show a few times. But most years, it was tradition to go to a friend’s house in Franklin to cook out and watch the modest Franklin fireworks.

This past summer in 2015, we broke out of our comfort zone and headed downtown for dinner and fireworks and we were not disappointed. Here are the top reasons you should spend your Fourth of July in downtown Nashville with over 200,000 friends.

Start your holiday off with the 10th annual Music City Hot Chicken Festival

Here’s an embarrassing vine I took when I went four years ago. I wasn’t prepared. Aside from the long lines, it’s definitely worth stopping by because all of the best hot chicken in Nashville is gathered in one park.

Next, hit up Pinewood Social

Or really any restaurant on the river that will give you an up close view of the fireworks without having to re-park. You’ll definitely need to make reservations for wherever you go, but the beauty of eating downtown is that most restaurants give you a table for the night. So you can go outside to see the fireworks and then back inside for dessert.

See FREE concerts

Wether you like country music or not, no one can deny the insane energy Nashville crowds have. Starting on July 3rd and going through the 4th, 15 bands will play across three different stages in Nashville. They even have some indie bands coming because as any Nashville native can tell you, we’re not just called music city for the country tunes. Sheryl Crow will be headlining with performances from Maddie & Tae to Erin McCarley and many more.

Nashville has amazing food

Pinewood Social is a restaurant, bar, coffee shop and bowling alley… with a pool. Oh, and their food is amazing. Pinewood aside, Downtown Nashville is home to some of the bests restaurants in the South. Some recommendations are Husk for a modern take on southern cuisine, Etch for an upscale dining experience and Acme feed and seed where a restaurant and bar meets a concert venue.

The biggest firework display in the whole country!

Theres nothing quite liking watching fireworks light up the sky against the modest Nashville skyline and seeing the pedestrian bridge light up with red, white and blue. This year the firework show will be accompanied by the Nashville Symphony. In New York, you might get a great firework display, but you’re not going to get the southern charm and friendliness with it. Even though there were 250,000 people last year, we felt incredibly safe. Nashville is home to some of the friendliest citizens and they’ll gladly take a picture for you or lower their umbrella if it’s covering your view.

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You’re still not convinced? Music city is literally making history this Fourth of July by beating out cities that have millions more citizens and millions more to spend in their budget. Nashville is a very special place, and this Fourth of July is certainly not going to disappoint.

(Still can’t make it? Watch this video taken by a drone taken last year here.)