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Riverbend Festival facts for kids

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People attend the Riverbend Festival in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, on June 10, 2011
People attend the Riverbend Festival in downtown Chattanooga in 2011

The Riverbend Festival, also called Riverbend, is a well-known annual music festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was started in June 1982 as a five-night festival. Over the years, the festival devolved into the three nights of its current run and presently ranks in the top 10 percent of all American festivals. Additionally, Riverbend has won several national awards from the International Festivals and Events Association, including 8 in 2007. The attendance for Riverbend has grown over the years and there are now regularly over 650,000 people that come over the course of the festival from all over Tennessee, the Southeast, the United States, and other countries. Individual nights can see some 80,000 people in attendance. The festival was named for the bend in the Tennessee River on which Chattanooga was established.

More than a hundred acts, both well-known and new, converge each year to perform various kinds of music, including classic rock, country, urban, and bluegrass, as well as jam bands, on three stages set alongside the Tennessee River. Headline performers are featured nightly on the Coca-Cola Stage, a barge which has been converted into a full-size concert stage. The barge floats just off the shore against a large collection of amphitheater seats built into a hillside at the water's edge. Major local and national companies, such as Covista Communications, Unum, and Budweiser, sponsor other stages throughout the riverfront area.

Admission is given to people with special scannable wristbands, which can be purchased in southeast Tennessee and north Georgia in the weeks leading up to the festival for a discounted price or purchased at the gate for a regular price. Admission was previously given to people who had collectible Riverbend Pins. A wristband provides admission for either one night or every night of the festival except for the Bessie Smith Strut. Concessions are purchased using a token system and many street vendors set up food and souvenir stands.

Notable past performers

2024

Riverbend will not be held in 2024 as a "temporary pause" intended to restructure the festival.

2023

2022

  • Brothers Osborne
  • Cage The Elephant
  • Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

2020 & 2021

There was no festival in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

  • The Alan Parsons Project
  • The Avett Brothers
  • Blake Shelton
  • Craig Morgan
  • Daughtry
  • Earth, Wind & Fire
  • Jars of Clay
  • moe.
  • Ricky Skaggs
  • Steve Miller Band
  • Vince Gill
  • Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance
  • 2007 also debuted Riverbend's first ever classical recital featuring pianist Ning An.

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

Official site

  • Riverbend Festival Official Website: http://www.riverbendfestival.com/
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