Looking back at C2C 2024
As the last burning embers begin to fade on Country to Country 2024 it starts the countdown clock towards coming back to do it again in 2025 which we now know will take place over the weekend of March 7th to 9th in Berlin and a week later in London, Glasgow and Belfast across the 14th to 16th March 2025.
Lauren Alaina singing “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” to herself as we waited for a bus to take us from the terminal to get to our plane (the air bridge was broke so luckily BA have a contingency plan) from Heathrow over to Berlin feels more like ten minutes rather than ten days ago as Country to Country 2024 in Germany and London went by so fast because it really was the most enjoyable festival yet.
Alana Springsteen, Rita Wilson, Stephen Wilson Jr. and a guest appearance from Hannah Ellis began the whole experience with a stunning event put on by Nashville’s world renowned Bluebird Cafe in the beautiful Passionskirche church in Berlin before the Mercedes Plaza and the Verti Music Hall would become our home for Germany’s centrepiece of the country music calendar.
I had never visited the German capital before so it was also my first time experiencing the festival over there and wasn’t really sure what to expect. The city and it’s history is wonderful, people are incredibly friendly and hospitable, the transport system (once you familiarise yourself with how to buy tickets) is reliable and efficient, the menu in McDonald’s is far superior to ours (really enjoyed the curly fries and being a McRib STAN once more), the beer is a lot stronger and all of the people speak English.
The German festival itself is a very different pace to London and whilst they do operate a daytime programme, it is a lot more tailored for acoustic songwriter type performances as the venues are restaurants, a cinema theatre, a room in a bowling alley and a rooftop bar. This is definitely a fit for the German audience as they really are the most respectful and attentive crowds I have ever seen. Whilst we hear a lot about UK audiences in comparison to in the US, the crowd in continental Europe really is another level and was incredibly interesting to see how courteous they are to the people around them and the artists stood on stage.
Lauren Alaina singing “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” to herself as we waited for a bus to take us from the terminal to get to our plane (the air bridge was broke so luckily BA have a contingency plan) from Heathrow over to Berlin feels more like ten minutes rather than ten days ago as Country to Country 2024 in Germany and London went by so fast because it really was the most enjoyable festival yet.
Alana Springsteen, Rita Wilson, Stephen Wilson Jr. and a guest appearance from Hannah Ellis began the whole experience with a stunning event put on by Nashville’s world renowned Bluebird Cafe in the beautiful Passionskirche church in Berlin before the Mercedes Plaza and the Verti Music Hall would become our home for Germany’s centrepiece of the country music calendar.
I had never visited the German capital before so it was also my first time experiencing the festival over there and wasn’t really sure what to expect. The city and it’s history is wonderful, people are incredibly friendly and hospitable, the transport system (once you familiarise yourself with how to buy tickets) is reliable and efficient, the menu in McDonald’s is far superior to ours (really enjoyed the curly fries and being a McRib STAN once more), the beer is a lot stronger and all of the people speak English.
The German festival itself is a very different pace to London and whilst they do operate a daytime programme, it is a lot more tailored for acoustic songwriter type performances as the venues are restaurants, a cinema theatre, a room in a bowling alley and a rooftop bar. This is definitely a fit for the German audience as they really are the most respectful and attentive crowds I have ever seen. Whilst we hear a lot about UK audiences in comparison to in the US, the crowd in continental Europe really is another level and was incredibly interesting to see how courteous they are to the people around them and the artists stood on stage.
Credit - Luke Dyson
For the evening shows, performances from; Brad Paisley, Old Dominion,Lauren Alaina, Drake Milligan and the Introducing Nashville round which consisted of Conner Smith, Karley Scott Collins & Lauren Watkins, would be replicated on the main stage in London a week later, whilst Colbie Caillat, Randall King, Alana Springsteen & Jackson Dean had main stage sets of their own in Berlin and Rotterdam. Colbie, Alana and Jackson would all appear to an extent in London but it was worth the trip over to Germany to see full sets from the three of them.
I cannot recommend the event in Berlin enough and really would encourage more UK fans and reputable media outlets who are committed to covering country music (basically am talking to our friends at Holler and Entertainment Focus here) to seriously consider coming over with us. It is a very different vibe but a great experience that is really chilled out by day where we spent time chatting with Halle Kearns, Zandi Holup, Alexandra Kay, Carter Faith, Alli Walker & Lauren Watkins, then an all standing floor space at The Verti Music Hall in the evening which has a capacity just shy of four and a half thousand people which feels much more comfortable than similar sized venues here in the UK.
A day of sightseeing with a stonking hangover which obviously included the purchase of a Berlin “You Are Here” mug to add to my Starbucks collection before flying back to Heathrow rounded off the continental European portion of our festival coverage. Showcase evenings put on by our friends at WHY&HOW presenting Angel White and Matt Koziol in Camden on Tuesday before the annual C2C curtain raiser for the media put on by Big Machine UK the following evening in Soho which starred Conner Smith, Jackson Dean, Shane Profitt, Greylan James, Brian Kelley & Carly Pearce.
I cannot recommend the event in Berlin enough and really would encourage more UK fans and reputable media outlets who are committed to covering country music (basically am talking to our friends at Holler and Entertainment Focus here) to seriously consider coming over with us. It is a very different vibe but a great experience that is really chilled out by day where we spent time chatting with Halle Kearns, Zandi Holup, Alexandra Kay, Carter Faith, Alli Walker & Lauren Watkins, then an all standing floor space at The Verti Music Hall in the evening which has a capacity just shy of four and a half thousand people which feels much more comfortable than similar sized venues here in the UK.
A day of sightseeing with a stonking hangover which obviously included the purchase of a Berlin “You Are Here” mug to add to my Starbucks collection before flying back to Heathrow rounded off the continental European portion of our festival coverage. Showcase evenings put on by our friends at WHY&HOW presenting Angel White and Matt Koziol in Camden on Tuesday before the annual C2C curtain raiser for the media put on by Big Machine UK the following evening in Soho which starred Conner Smith, Jackson Dean, Shane Profitt, Greylan James, Brian Kelley & Carly Pearce.
Credit - Luke Dyson
By the time Thursday (or at least I think it was Thursday) rolled around, it was our seventh day whilst most of my friends were just getting started as we arrived at The O2 complex for the CMA Songwriters Series in The Indigo at The O2 for what is always a highlight of the entire festival where this year was no different with a delightful night with Charlie Worsham, Lauren Alaina, Colbie Caillat and Stephen Wilson Jr. plus special guest appearances from Fancy Hagood and our friend Abbey Cone who finally was here in the UK for the first time.
Then the real juggernaut rolled along and at one o’clock on Friday 8th March, Jesse Denaro and Luke Healy kicked off the whole festival with the rowdy, blue-collar Pittsburgh attitude as Lakeview began the proceedings in the Barrelhouse within the Town Square which was one of the seven daytime stages at the festival.
The Icon stage up in the outlet village returned and The Observatory pub which had previously hosted acoustic music independently during the festival became an official stage this year whilst The Big Entrance stage which was presented by new Sponsor Pepsi greeted all arrivals as the first impression of the festival was treated to glorious sunshine which is unusual for this time of the year but on Sunday the weather unfortunately was more stereotypically British. BBC Radio 2 once again presented the stage in The Indigo with Bobbie Pryor and Charlie Worsham acting as hosts for the weekend, which as always proved a really popular place for people to spend their weekend as was The Saloon upstairs in All Bar One presented by our pals at Holler.
I love the idea of the the stripped back nature of sets with the accompanying interview but (here we go for the first time in 2024) I have a major issue with the way that this space in All Bar One is used at the festival because I hate chairs at a festival at the best of times but this year it was very difficult to be able to find any space whatsoever and people were restricted to standing at the bar or blocking the door which was very difficult to be able to see anything. This is not a new observation and one I have shared every year (my reviews of The Long Road and Black Deer will likely have a similar rant later this year) where it is my subjective opinion from my own perspective of chairs at festivals take up a lot of space which restricts the amount of people who can access the area and to cut a long story short I don’t like chairs at festivals.
Then the real juggernaut rolled along and at one o’clock on Friday 8th March, Jesse Denaro and Luke Healy kicked off the whole festival with the rowdy, blue-collar Pittsburgh attitude as Lakeview began the proceedings in the Barrelhouse within the Town Square which was one of the seven daytime stages at the festival.
The Icon stage up in the outlet village returned and The Observatory pub which had previously hosted acoustic music independently during the festival became an official stage this year whilst The Big Entrance stage which was presented by new Sponsor Pepsi greeted all arrivals as the first impression of the festival was treated to glorious sunshine which is unusual for this time of the year but on Sunday the weather unfortunately was more stereotypically British. BBC Radio 2 once again presented the stage in The Indigo with Bobbie Pryor and Charlie Worsham acting as hosts for the weekend, which as always proved a really popular place for people to spend their weekend as was The Saloon upstairs in All Bar One presented by our pals at Holler.
I love the idea of the the stripped back nature of sets with the accompanying interview but (here we go for the first time in 2024) I have a major issue with the way that this space in All Bar One is used at the festival because I hate chairs at a festival at the best of times but this year it was very difficult to be able to find any space whatsoever and people were restricted to standing at the bar or blocking the door which was very difficult to be able to see anything. This is not a new observation and one I have shared every year (my reviews of The Long Road and Black Deer will likely have a similar rant later this year) where it is my subjective opinion from my own perspective of chairs at festivals take up a lot of space which restricts the amount of people who can access the area and to cut a long story short I don’t like chairs at festivals.
The final stage saw the biggest change as the Wayside stage moved into its own room rather than just being to the side of the main walkway of the Dome’s outer ring but I really liked the feel of this change and once again was my favourite daytime performance space although at times appeared to reach capacity rather quickly.
Musically I think this has been one of the if not the strongest lineups which we have seen at the festival in a long time. Friday fell on International Women’s Day so naturally I repped the most iconic girl band of all time and wore my Spice Girls t-shirt (I pulled Britney Spears and Little Mix out of the locker for Saturday and Sunday) as we saw 6 women out of the 14 main stage performers which is really close to the ratio of equality that we all should want to see.
Across the weekend we also saw independent artists, people of colour where one of them headlined the main stage and members of the LGBTQ+ community amongst artists from the UK, Canada, United States and Australia. This is not a work based HR observation to highlight diversity as an exercise but these artists are here on merit and the fact that the festival does not discriminate or create barriers genuinely should be recognised and celebrated.
Musically I think this has been one of the if not the strongest lineups which we have seen at the festival in a long time. Friday fell on International Women’s Day so naturally I repped the most iconic girl band of all time and wore my Spice Girls t-shirt (I pulled Britney Spears and Little Mix out of the locker for Saturday and Sunday) as we saw 6 women out of the 14 main stage performers which is really close to the ratio of equality that we all should want to see.
Across the weekend we also saw independent artists, people of colour where one of them headlined the main stage and members of the LGBTQ+ community amongst artists from the UK, Canada, United States and Australia. This is not a work based HR observation to highlight diversity as an exercise but these artists are here on merit and the fact that the festival does not discriminate or create barriers genuinely should be recognised and celebrated.
Credit - Luke Dyson
We have produced individual full reviews of each individual day so to save me a copy and paste job and treble the length of this piece you can check out our thoughts on Friday HERE, Saturday HERE and Sunday HERE but some personal highlights from both events were:
• Alana Springsteen being worth the trip to Berlin in her own right as she was the standout of the weekend. She also did an incredible job as the main stage hostess in London where she brought a great level of energy to compliment the legend that is Bob Harris.
• Zandi Holup with her beautiful and dreamy style of Americana that is laced with plenty of spice in her lyrics.
• Jake Owen (proving to my haters that I do also have time for male artists) was even wilder than his outfit and well worth the wait for his long overdue first show in London.
• FINALLY having Abbey Cone playing here in London and getting to meet IN REAL LIFE after years of being Zoom and Instagram friends. I’m thrilled to see her thriving and how upbeat she is about releasing music independently so, I hope this is the first of many visits across the pond.
• Seeing the full blown Kane Brown production on a huge stage was really exciting to see and wow that show is something else.
• Halle Kearns and Hannah Ellis for just being the absolute best and most awesome people on the planet who I have really enjoyed getting to spend so much time around and hug at every possible opportunity. I swear I came to five sets from each of them over the two weekends but never saw one all the way through in one go so have “Homemade Margaritas” and “Wine Country” on constant repeat running through my head (shock horror it’s the drinking songs)
• The joy of falling in love with the music of an artist for the first time that you had never listened to before and at C2C this year that was Lola Kirke.
• The hyperactivity and positivity that Harper Grace just radiates on and off stage. It was fantastic to hear some of the new songs that she has on the way this year and I just love the way she tells her story which she really owns.
• From when I first saw Elle King open up for Train in 2012, I was captivated by her sassy attitude and her incredible voice. The bluesy full band rock set on the Sunday night was really cool and one of the most fun things across the whole weekend in London.
• Alana Springsteen being worth the trip to Berlin in her own right as she was the standout of the weekend. She also did an incredible job as the main stage hostess in London where she brought a great level of energy to compliment the legend that is Bob Harris.
• Zandi Holup with her beautiful and dreamy style of Americana that is laced with plenty of spice in her lyrics.
• Jake Owen (proving to my haters that I do also have time for male artists) was even wilder than his outfit and well worth the wait for his long overdue first show in London.
• FINALLY having Abbey Cone playing here in London and getting to meet IN REAL LIFE after years of being Zoom and Instagram friends. I’m thrilled to see her thriving and how upbeat she is about releasing music independently so, I hope this is the first of many visits across the pond.
• Seeing the full blown Kane Brown production on a huge stage was really exciting to see and wow that show is something else.
• Halle Kearns and Hannah Ellis for just being the absolute best and most awesome people on the planet who I have really enjoyed getting to spend so much time around and hug at every possible opportunity. I swear I came to five sets from each of them over the two weekends but never saw one all the way through in one go so have “Homemade Margaritas” and “Wine Country” on constant repeat running through my head (shock horror it’s the drinking songs)
• The joy of falling in love with the music of an artist for the first time that you had never listened to before and at C2C this year that was Lola Kirke.
• The hyperactivity and positivity that Harper Grace just radiates on and off stage. It was fantastic to hear some of the new songs that she has on the way this year and I just love the way she tells her story which she really owns.
• From when I first saw Elle King open up for Train in 2012, I was captivated by her sassy attitude and her incredible voice. The bluesy full band rock set on the Sunday night was really cool and one of the most fun things across the whole weekend in London.
Credit - Ruby Gaunt
Well that’s a wrap on Country to Country 2024 and we look forward to doing it all again in Berlin and London in twelve months time. We have seen this event grow so much here in London and are excited to see what the future has in store as both events continue to grow in popularity.
These events have a lot of moving parts that go unnoticed by so many people so I’ll end with a few shout outs to say some thank yous. Firstly to Kara and Johnny at SJM, then Marita and Dustin from Semel for all that you guys have allowed us to do at both festivals. Pete & Brendan at WHY&HOW, Kat from DediKATed, Luke, Jenny & Sara at Lime Tree, Alex, Iren, Flo and Roxanne at Big Machine, Chris from Gardenia and especially Cayleigh from Big Loud who was an absolute life saver in Germany and Evangeline (my stolen tiger) for convincing me that bad decisions are what I should be doing! Obviously not forgetting James, Laura, Pip, Adrena, Charlotte, Ross, Holly, Gemma, Maddy, Jof and Maxim - we did it, we all smashed it and all still want to know “what is Chase Rice’s favourite kind of rice?” Lastly let’s go: Halle Kearns, Hannah Ellis, Hannah Dasher, Brooke Eden, Alyssa Bonagura, Abbey Cone, JJ Shiplett, Kyle Daniel, Kenny Foster, Tyler Sjöström, Carter Faith and Harper Grace for just hanging out with me - it is still so crazy to me that people that are far more interesting than me enjoy the trainwreck that I am, enough to want to have drinks with me, or message me asking for recommendations, or just go out of your way to talk to me or jump on me for a hug as soon as you see me. I felt the love from all of you guys and girls so much and I have appreciated every minute so make sure you all come back to hang out again soon.
These events have a lot of moving parts that go unnoticed by so many people so I’ll end with a few shout outs to say some thank yous. Firstly to Kara and Johnny at SJM, then Marita and Dustin from Semel for all that you guys have allowed us to do at both festivals. Pete & Brendan at WHY&HOW, Kat from DediKATed, Luke, Jenny & Sara at Lime Tree, Alex, Iren, Flo and Roxanne at Big Machine, Chris from Gardenia and especially Cayleigh from Big Loud who was an absolute life saver in Germany and Evangeline (my stolen tiger) for convincing me that bad decisions are what I should be doing! Obviously not forgetting James, Laura, Pip, Adrena, Charlotte, Ross, Holly, Gemma, Maddy, Jof and Maxim - we did it, we all smashed it and all still want to know “what is Chase Rice’s favourite kind of rice?” Lastly let’s go: Halle Kearns, Hannah Ellis, Hannah Dasher, Brooke Eden, Alyssa Bonagura, Abbey Cone, JJ Shiplett, Kyle Daniel, Kenny Foster, Tyler Sjöström, Carter Faith and Harper Grace for just hanging out with me - it is still so crazy to me that people that are far more interesting than me enjoy the trainwreck that I am, enough to want to have drinks with me, or message me asking for recommendations, or just go out of your way to talk to me or jump on me for a hug as soon as you see me. I felt the love from all of you guys and girls so much and I have appreciated every minute so make sure you all come back to hang out again soon.
Credit - Ruby Gaunt
C2C Country to Country Berlin will return in 2025 for three days over the weekend of March 7th to 9th where you will be able to find more details on their WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK where you will also be able to relive highlights from this years event. The event will then roll into London the following weekend between March 14th to 16th which you can keep a look out for all forthcoming details on the event WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAM TWITTER FACEBOOK)
