Crowd Image Credit: Toni Horan
The weather for day three of the Gulf Coast Jam was similar to the previous two days at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. Hot and partly cloudy, with a 30% – 40% change of rain. It was Saturday at the Jam, the busiest of all four days, which correlates to the largest crowd of the festival. The nights headliner was Kenny Chesney, filling in for Morgan Wallen who had to scratch do to vocal issues. Which means only one thing, No Shoes Nation has come to town! No Shoes Nation is the name of Kenny Chesney’s fan club, and they are a passionate bunch.
To date the festival had been running like clockwork, the bands are performing on time, there were plenty of food & beverage, and enough facilities for the large crowd. I would also like to note that the sound and video system were awesome and the audience had a great time. Until of course after the sun went down, then many tried to improve their position by moving forward into any available space!
The Happy Crowd Shots
Lily Rose started the day out at 4:30pm in front of the largest opening act crowd over the past three days. Her set was short, just over 30 minutes, but man did she have a kick ass band behind her. Lily Rose is from Georgia, but relocated to Nashville to get her career going. In 2020, she posted the song “Villain” online and her career got the spark it needed. As with so many artists at this festival, Lily Rose is a genre-bending country performer and her music can be categorized as contemporary country, pop, and groove-oriented R&B. A good performer, but she is an opener at the present time until she gets more shows under her belt.
Bailey Zimmerman‘s start time was 5:30pm and he opened with the title track of his new album “Religiously.” Accolades earned in 2022, Zimmerman was named Billboard’s #2 Top New Country Artist and #4 Top New Artist Overall. Singles “Fall in Love” and “Rock and a Hard Place” both charted and reached number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. His 2023 release, Religiously is currently #3 on Billboard magazine’s Top Country Albums chart. Zimmerman is also a young artist that got discovered on TikTok.
Earnest was next on the Gulf Coast Jam stage at 6:45pm, and the attendance for the day was starting to peak. Earnest was born and raise in Nashville, Tennessee and after writing songs for Florida Georgia Line, Jake Owen, Chris Lane, Thomas Rhett and Morgan Wallen, he signed a recording contract in 2019. Earnest was very engaging and used the complete stage, coming out the runway and the side stage walkways getting up close and personal with the fans. It was a high energy performance.
Chase Rice took the stage as the sun was setting. Every available space in front of the stage was filled as the 30,000 plus fans in attendance moved in a bit closer. Chase Rice has an interesting background, as a linebacker for the North Carolina Tar Heels football team in college, to working as the rear tire carrier for the Hendrick Motorsports pit crew, this artist graces the stage as one of the top country music artists with sales of albums over 2.2 million and over 2.1 billion total streams. I have to say, his performance was my favorite over the four day festival. He brought out his nephew Dan buring the set and sang “Eyes on You” with him, from the end of the runway that jets out into the crowd. It was a tender moment that got even better as Dan wasn’t about to come off stage as he delivered high fives everyone lining the stage. Just priceless!
Unfortunately, management specified that no media coverage of Kenny Chesney was allowed. But no worries, I am sure you can find hundreds of amateur photos taken on cell phones throughout social media from Gulf Coast Jam 2023.
Maybe next time?
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Photographer and Editor/Founder of AllMusicMagazine.com. My love of live music has taken me to incredible experiences with the top bands of all time in stadium shows to the smallest venues with equally inspiring musicians. Using the medium of photography and my publication, these memories will last forever.
