Seventeen years later, Nashville looks different, I look different, and our favorite local concert
series is getting a new home on the riverfront.

By Jen Spice | August 2026
I moved to Nashville in 2009 — the same year Live on the Green started.

That was seventeen years, one child, several careers, approximately four million fitness classes, and a completely different Nashville skyline ago. So when I saw that Live on the Green was officially coming back, this one hit a little differently.

Lightning 100 is bringing the series back with Opry Entertainment Group, but it will not return to Public
Square Park. Its new home is Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater on the riverfront. The comeback starts October 18 with a Lawnwarming Party featuring Grace Potter and Guster, followed by the full series in 2027. We’re back, baby — just with assigned seating options now. Growth.

This Was Our Nashville
Before every downtown plan required a reservation, a parking strategy, and someone in the group willing to split a $19 cocktail, there was Live on the Green. You met your friends on the lawn, heard an artist you already loved, and usually discovered someone you would not stop talking about six months later.

It felt local because it was local. No velvet rope. No twelve-step itinerary. No need to pretend you knew the drummer. Just Nashville showing up for Nashville. And I miss that version of us sometimes.

The last event happened at Public Square Park in 2022. When the series paused, organizers said producing a completely free festival had become too expensive and complicated. The new version will include free-ticket opportunities, paid reserved seats, and VIP options. Before everyone runs to the Facebook comments: no, it is not exactly the same. Neither is Nashville. Neither am I. That does not mean we cannot still recognize the good parts.

Now Let’s Talk About the riverfront. Here is where my brain immediately left the concert announcement and entered full Nashville Fit mode. I spend a lot of time on the riverfront now through our work with the Downtown Nashville Partnership.

We have brought Pilates, dance fitness, and community workouts downtown, and every time I stand there looking at the river, I think: why are we not doing even more with this space?
Maybe it is because I am a group fitness instructor. Maybe it is because I have spent years turning empty rooms, parking lots, and any available patch of grass into a class schedule. But I do not see Ascend only as a concert venue. I see pre-show yoga. Run-club meetups. Recovery stations. Local wellness vendors. Hydration partners. A morning workout that gives people a reason to come downtown before the first guitar is plugged in.
MY NASHVILLE FIT TAKE: The music is the headline. The real opportunity is giving Nashville

NASHVILLE FIT | EDITORIAL DRAFT

Jen Spice • Nashville Fit
more reasons to gather, move and actually enjoy downtown again.

Nashville Wellness Has Entered the Chat I have watched Nashville’s fitness scene grow from a handful of familiar studios and instructors into a full wellness economy. The workout still matters, but people want more than forty-five minutes and a sweaty selfie. They want music. Community. Local businesses. A reason to stay instead of immediately fighting their way back to I-65.
Live on the Green already has the music and the community. The riverfront has the space.

Wellness is the obvious next layer — but only if we make it useful. Not another logo wall. Not a sad vendor table everyone avoids eye contact with. Real activations people want: movement, recovery, hydration, and local experts who make the entire day feel better.
The official 2027 dates and lineup have not been announced, which means the bigger vision is still being built.

That is the conversation I want Nashville Fit in early — not after everything is planned and someone remembers they need ‘a fitness person.’ We know the studios. We know the instructors. We know what people will actually show up for because we are already doing it on that riverfront. I moved here the year Live on the Green began. Seventeen years later, Nashville is different. So am I. But I still know when something feels like us — and this comeback does.
What to Know

Lawnwarming Party: October 18, 2026, at Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater

Announced performers: Grace Potter and Guster, with more to come

Full return: Live on the Green is scheduled to return as a series in 2027

Tickets: Reserved tickets for the October event go on sale August 28 at 8 a.m. CT; check the
official event site for current availability