Nashville’s live New Year’s Eve event earlier this month at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park broke records and exceeded expectations in both direct visitor spending and attendance, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp (NCVC) recently announced.
“The response to this year’s Big Bash continues to validate this city as a global destination,” Butch Spyridon, CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, said in a statement.
The television special – New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash – aired on CBS Television Network and featured nearly 50 performances – including headliners Brooks & Dunn, Zac Brown Band, and Kelsea Ballerini – from locations across the city. The broadcast “placed second among networks in viewers for the night,” NCVC reports.
“We are grateful to CBS for carrying the Music City brand nationally with the show serving as a five-hour commercial for Nashville and are proud our event creates economic activity in the city during a typically slow time of year,” Spyridon said.
Happy New Year, from Music City! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/w5tD9HVYAa
— Nashville Tennessee (@visitmusiccity) January 1, 2023
Organizers of the live event originally expected to have an attendance of 200,000 people and generate as much as $30 million in direct visitor spending, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star. However, the event ended up generating an estimated $38 million in direct visitor spending, which is an increase of 27% over the previous year’s record-breaking $30 million in visitor spending.
The event’s attendance at midnight was approximately 210,000 – also a record number, NCVC noted.
“The national broadcast provided the city with positive exposure that will generate additional visitation in future years,” NCVC wrote in a press release.
As a result of the event, 32,996 hotel rooms were sold in Davidson County, up 13% from the 29,118 sold in 2021, according to NCVC. A total of 85% of hotel rooms were occupied in the city, the highest occupancy rate ever.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
And the cost of setup, production and cleanup of the event also set new records. Not sure about the number of arrests.