Every chart-topper has an origin story, and this summer, Las Vegas becomes the place to hear them all. The Las Vegas Songwriters Festival, running Aug. 21-24 at Mandalay Bay, promises to pull back the curtain on country music’s creative process.
The four-day event is the brainchild of Rob Hatch and Mike Every, Nashville songwriters who saw a gap in the festival landscape. Hatch, who has crafted hits like Lee Brice’s “I Don’t Dance” and Justin Moore’s “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” had been to songwriter festivals across the country when the obvious question hit him:
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“Vegas is the place for entertainment in the world,” he said in an exclusive interview with Las Vegas Magazine. “My thought was, why hasn’t anyone done this here? If we were going to bring the best songwriters in the world, we wanted to do it in the best venues in the world.”
Working with MGM Resorts International through their company Entersong Entertainment, Hatch and Every have assembled something unprecedented: more than 300 No. 1 songs represented across 100 live performances on five stages throughout Mandalay Bay. The approach here is refreshingly different. Instead of elaborate staging, it’s rooted in intimacy and storytelling, with performances beginning daily at 11 a.m. and featuring the writers themselves sharing the often-untold stories behind their biggest hits.
Lee Brice sets the tone Thursday night at House of Blues with “Lee Brice: Stories and Songs.” The multiplatinum artist, whose catalog includes nine No. 1 singles and more than 10 billion career streams, will perform alongside the songwriters who helped create those hits, including Billy Montana, Bobby Pinson, Brian Davis, Jerrod Niemann and Liz Rose, among others.
“Lee’s one of the best artists in the country,” Hatch says. “When you look at his setlist, almost every song he performs was written with one of the writers at this festival. Bringing up these writers to perform their songs should be unbelievable.”
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Perhaps the festival’s most compelling element is its re-creation of Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe experience. The House of Blues B-Side venue will be transformed into a replica of the iconic songwriting room, complete with the intimate “songwriter rounds” that made the Bluebird famous. Award-winning broadcaster Storme Warren will host Q&A sessions featuring heavyweight writers like Dean Dillon (George Strait’s “The Chair,” “Tennessee Whiskey”), Paul Overstreet (Randy Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen”), Charles Esten (“This Town”) and Rose, who has the remarkable distinction of co-writing 17 songs for Taylor Swift, including “Teardrops on My Guitar.”
“The Bluebird Cafe is the first thing to come to mind when people think of songwriter rounds,” Hatch notes. “We’re bringing that intimate atmosphere to Vegas, even though it’s on a big stage.”
With tickets starting at $69 for single-day passes and extending to four-day VIP packages, the festival aims to make the experience accessible to a broader audience while maintaining its down-home authenticity.
As for Hatch, the festival represents something bigger than entertainment. It’s about giving credit where credit is due for these songwriters who work behind the scenes. “We would absolutely love to make this an annual thing in Las Vegas,” he says. “I’m super-optimistic about the future.”
Mandalay Bay, 10 a.m. Aug. 21-24, starting at $464.35 plus tax and fee. ticketmaster.com
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