HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Believe it or not, South Star Music Festival is right around the corner. Although there's currently an empty field at John Hunt Park, thousands of fans will be packing it in just over a week.
"We're a week away from our community in north Alabama seeing a size, scale and quality festival that I don't know that's ever happened in North Alabama at this scale," said Shane Davis, Director of Huntsville Urban and Economic Development.
C3 Presents and Huntsville officials have been hard at work to make it a reality. They've been holding regularly-scheduled meetings, discussing every topic imaginable.
Davis said, "It's a long, two page list that's gone through in very much minutia, detail every Friday now for the past four months."
Construction crews are out this week laying asphalt, preparing John Hunt Park for the big crowds. The event is expected to see 40-45,000 people in attendance over the two days. It's also supposed to bring in big numbers, significant in terms of economic impact. When it comes to hotels for out of town guests, the options are very limited. "Everything downtown, south, north and southeast is sold out," said Davis.
It's taken some quick work to put this party together. "The first festival was going to be September of 2025," said Davis, "After signing that contract, they said we think we have the ability to really put the first festival in 2024."
The challenges faced were surprisingly minimal when it came to putting this show on a year earlier than expected. "I think the challenge is trying to let North Alabama, southern Tennessee, the Huntsville community, to understand the quality, the scale and the size this festival is," said Davis.
For those who haven't bought their tickets yet, Davis said, "Next week, drop by and see the just the scale of the stages and the sports halls. It starts to rise up out of the ground. I think you really start to see, hey, this is really a high class festival."
Transportation options vary for those attending. Buses, rideshare and paid parking lots are available.