Nate Rau

nrau@tennessean.com

There isn’t another night on the calendar where Nashville lives up to its Music City moniker like it does on New Year’s Eve.

Virtually every music venue in town is booked with live music. Bridgestone Arena will play host to veteran jam band Widespread Panic. The Opry House will host John Prine, Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves. The Ryman Auditorium will have headliner Old Crow Medicine Show. Small and midsized clubs will fill with capacity crowds on hand to see bands from almost every genre.

And the centerpiece is a free concert at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park headlined by Keith Urban. Last year the New Year’s Eve celebration lured 150,000 visitors and generated $22.2 million in direct visitor spending.

The free downtown music festival, combined with the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl and live music throughout the city, have turned Nashville into a premier destination for New Year's Eve tourists.

After years of so-so tourism numbers for the New Year's holiday, the Convention and Visitors Corp. worked with the music industry to book local artists representing an array of genres. For example, this year's show will feature Urban, Styx, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Moon Taxi, Charlie Worsham and A Thousand Horses.

To help pay for marketing expenses and booking fees, the CVC tapped into the city’s event marketing fund. This year’s New Year’s Eve bash received a $400,000 grant.

“For us, the music was what was going to define Nashville’s New Year’s Eve,” said Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. “It’s like the July Fourth (celebration in downtown Nashville, which also attracts tens of thousands of people). We said, ‘With July Fourth, we can do it with fireworks. With New Year’s Eve, we will do it with music.’ And our differentiation is we’re having a party.

“New Year’s in New York is an event. That’s not a judgment; it’s a compliment. But their artists only do a few songs. They’re mostly singing to tracks. We wanted to say, ‘You can have a beer. You’re going to hear a whole set. And we’re singing live.’ ”

Nashville New Year's Eve concert guide

Tourism stats show growth

In partnership with the Music City Bowl, all of the tourism measurements show that New Year’s Eve is a premier event for Nashville. Spyridon said the city competes with the top international tourist destinations to lure visitors.

In 2008, hotel occupancy for New Year’s Eve in Davidson County was 59.7 percent, according to data provided by the CVC. That number grew to 91.6 percent last year when Kings of Leon, Chris Stapleton and Kelsea Ballerini led the performances at the free concert on Lower Broadway. The average rate for a room on New Year’s Eve in 2008 was $116.89; that figure increased to $182.44 in 2015. The total number of hotel rooms booked has doubled from 10,660 in 2008 to 20,486 in 2015.

The Omni Nashville Hotel has regularly been booked on New Year's Eve, said Tod Roadarmel, director of sales and marketing for the hotel. He said the CVC deserves credit for turning the free concert and music note drop event into a tourism draw.

"With everything Nashville has to offer, there is something special about spending New Year’s Eve here, and our city has historically put on a great show to treat those who are here to celebrate," Roadarmel said. "From last year with the Kings of Lean and Chris Stapleton to Keith Urban this year, the music alone is enough of a reason to ring in the new year in Nashville. I cannot think of anywhere else in the U.S. visitors can enjoy entertainment of this caliber — and it’s free."

Obviously, the Music City Bowl matchup helps dictate the number of travelers to Nashville for New Year’s Eve. In previous years the game was played on New Year’s Eve, but more recently organizers have moved it to Dec. 30. That means many visitors fit in the game and live music into three- or four-day stays.

By improving the downtown celebration, the CVC insulated the tourism industry from years when the football game creates fewer hotel bookings, particularly when in-state teams Vanderbilt or Tennessee participate. Spyridon said there's so much going on, he anticipates some fans planning to go to the free concert at the Capitol Mall and fit in shows at another venue.

“The city is chocked full of things to do,” Spyridon said. “Moon Taxi told us when we were talking lineup, ‘We wanna go early. We think a lot of our fans will wanna go to Widespread Panic too.’ So now you can run the triangle — you got our event, the arena and the Ryman."

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

Davidson County hotel occupancy for Dec. 31

2008: 59.7 percent

2009: 63.1 percent

2010: 75.7 percent

2011: 90.3 percent

2012: 84.2 percent

2013: 80.5 percent

2014: 86.9 percent

2015: 91.6 percent

Source: Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp.