Nate Rau

nrau@tennessean.com

A record-breaking crowd at last week's season-opening Live on the Green concert, marked by especially long waits in the beer line, has led festival organizers to tinker with the setup.

Concession booths previously located on the Public Square lawn, where fans congregate in front of the stage, will be moved to Union Street. Last week's show featuring City and Colour and The Weeks brought a record crowd, estimated between 16,000 and 18,000, according to Festival Director Chris Paxton.

The bulging crowd brought some bottlenecking, confusion and long waits at the beer tables. Paxton said the festival heard some complaints and will be moving some booths in order to address those concerns.

The goal is to improve fan experiences. Paxton said details of the changes would be announced this week on the Live on the Green Facebook page.

But Paxton and Live on the Green talent buyer Chris Cobb said the large crowd didn't bring any safety concerns. The free concert series has gotten progressively more popular since it was launched six years ago.

"In not so many words, my concessionaires were prepared for less people than we had," Paxton said. "Thirty-minute beer lines are not really acceptable. We made a couple adjustments this week already. I'm going to make a follow-up post that will say, 'Here's the new site map. We're clearing concession booths off the green and onto Union.' You will add space for thousands more on the green, comfortable space for fans."

Cobb pointed out that the large crowd wasn't totally unexpected. The first show in 2009 ago brought a crowd of about 1,200. But its popularity has been on the rise and more than 200,000 have attended the series since then.

"The momentum has been there for the past two seasons and it's just kind of keeping pace with the growth it's seen," Cobb said.

The Head and the Heart and Wild Cub highlight Thursday's Live on the Green concert.

Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.