There simply is no other country music festival quite like The Long Road. We always spend an entire year counting down the days until the next one because we enjoy it that much!

It isn’t just the music that entices us, it’s the friends, the family, the food, the set up and picturesque grounds.

The music is second to none at The Long Road. I have come to learn over the years that you have a much better experience going to see acts that you may not have necessarily heard before rather than focusing on the mainstream acts. That isn’t to take away anything from the mainstream acts as they deserve the love and attention they receive but for me personally, The Long Road is all about experiencing new artists (to me) and sitting back, relaxing whilst doing so!

It was this mentality that had me spend the majority of Saturday at The Front Porch Stage. I have always regretted not spending more time there so this year I dedicated a lot more time!

We began our Long Road experience on Saturday by catching Megan McKenna’s set on The Rhinestone Stage. Megan opened up the stage that day which can always be a challenge. However, Megan did not disappoint and was met with a warm and busy audience! Megan is just ‘good times’. Always incredibly grateful to be a part of the country music world, Megan’s fun, humble and engaging personality is infectious and she always proves her worth with her stunning vocals and fantastically catchy music.

Megan performed songs such as Baby Talk, Confetti, Ruin Your Night, High Heeled Shoes and This. It’s always lovely to see Megan at a country music festival and we hope to see her at many more!

After a few interviews we caught Jackson Dean’s set at The Rhinestone. He and his band completely rocked the heck out of The Long Road with their authentic country rock sounds and raw and exceptional musicianship! It’s instrumental segments and guitar solos that get me a lot of the time. Fearless was flawless soaring in the summer breeze!

From seeing Jackson Dean we sat at The Front Porch Stage to see Gabe Lee. He was one of the artists that we had researched prior to the festival and were extremely excited to see him. He did not disappoint! After Gabe we caught Sacha who wowed her audience with her beautiful vocals, stunning melodies and fun personality! The energetic Michael B. Whit followed and he certainly brought the heat! We won’t be surprised if he soon becomes one country music’s biggest names.

One of the highlights on The Front Porch Stage and in fact the entire festival were Chapel Hart. If you missed them, then you really missed them! These wonderful ladies were the bright spark of the festival and quite simply one of the greatest performers that you could have asked for!

We have a separate article/review on who we saw at The Front Porch here which features Michael B. Whit, Sacha, Chapel Hart and Gabe Lee.

Finally finding a few minutes to grab some food, we got a Beef Brisket Burger from our friends over at Texas Smoker (click on link for last years review) The brisket was tender and full of flavour, absolutely delicious and very filling. Earlier in the day my husband had Chilli from there which he said was some of the best chilli he had ever had. Texas Smoker kindly gave us a Turkey leg which was absolutely huge!!!!! Covered in BBQ Sauce, the meat was delicious and very easy to eat without having to chew much at all! It was a monster of meal, everyone near us were taking a good look! In the end my husband had the challenge to conquer it all as I was full from the Brisket!

We attended The Long Road as a family so my children spent a lot of time at Lil’ Possum County. In fact, it was the hardest challenge of the entire weekend trying to drag them away from it!

The Camp Leader (Company Tootles and Nibs) had activities on all day which included water fights, wellie wanging, space hopper races, parachute games, campfire stories, toasted marshmallows and more! The kids area also had swing ball, bowling, corn hole and a tent for babies that had toys and musical instruments inside. There was also a tree house, fairground rides and more!

Catching a bit of Nickel Creek after being lured in by the excellent banjo playing, we then went on the Big Wheel and then toasted Marshmallows.

The only painful thing about fairground rides at festivals is the cost. Whilst I understand they need to make a profit, it was quite hard to part with £15 for me and my two sons to ride the big wheel together. We simply can’t do more than one ride in the future.

The Long Road provides some of the best festival food choices we have ever seen at a festival. I would have liked to have seen maybe a smoothie vendor or something similar? If there was one and I missed it please correct me!

The VIP area is always great for us as a family especially for later in the evening when we are seeing artists on the main stage as this allows our kids to run around safely without getting lost in the crowds. For me, VIP is all about the nicer toilets (for a VIPee) with less queues. They were a pain to move around in as very little space but they were never blocked!! It’s nice to have sinks with proper soap too!

The VIP area is also good for hardly any queues at the bar. We also had a cheese and wine bar this year with an excellent cheese board!

We caught a few songs of BlackBerry Smoke but as predicted, the kids were too tired. We have attempted many a time to get them to sleep in the pull-a-long buggy that we bring with us but they were having none of it! We will always bring the kids with us! Firstly there is no one in our lives who can look after them, secondly we would miss them and thirdly they really really love it!!!!

Despite leaving early, we had such a fantastic day! I love the small town feel that The Long Road gives. It feels like you’re in the deep south and it’s wonderfully atmospheric! You feel safe and comfortable at The Long Road and more importantly, you feel at home!