Miranda Lambert to Headline Inaugural NiFi Festival

Miranda Lambert is set to headline the first-ever NiFi Festival at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., alongside Green Day and Kings of Leon.

Other performers set for the three-stage festival, which is scheduled to take place Aug. 28-30, include Hank Williams Jr., Brantley Gilbert, Jake Owen, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Sara Evans, Josh Turner, Jana Kramer, Jon Pardi, Charlie Worsham, Gov’t Mule, Weezer, Spoon, Flogging Molly, the Preservation Jazz Hall Band and more.

The multi-genre festival is the product of a collaboration between Nitro Fidelity and Speedway Motorsports Inc. The two companies hope to launch multiple music festivals to compete with the leading festivals in the country. In addition to the event at Kentucky Speedway, the group is planning 2016 festivals at Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas and North Carolina's Charlotte Motor Speedway. Long-term, they hope to expand to have five festivals in the series within the next 10 years.

“We’ve looked at the market, and there are, like, 1,000 festivals in the U.S.,” NiFi CEO Sean Knight says. “But if you talk about the Tier 1 [fests], there’s, like, 10 that have the wherewithal to put on a show at that highest level. We knew out of the gate we didn’t want to be a mediocre festival, or a small one. We came from the approach that not only do we not want to be a failure, it has to be a success at a high level to penetrate the market, get notoriety, for people to come, experience and say, ‘Wow, I want to go back next year.’”

Knight and Howard Mergelkamp, NiFi's chief strategy officer, recognize that they're taking on a huge project, but they say that they've planned for potential struggles over the first few years.

“We came in with eyes wide open, we understand the economics of a first year, second year, third year, when you do make money, and how you make it, and we planned for it," Mergelkamp says. "We’re hoping that we bring something special to the market and to the regions that we’re going into. We’re trying to learn from the best, and we’re not bashful at looking at what everyone else is doing and saying, ‘We like that, and we don’t like this, and we think we can do this unique thing.’ We like the industry, we think there’s a lot going on, and a lot more to come.”

Tickets and information can be found at NiFiFest.com, with a variety of package options available.

Lambert will be kicking off her all-female 2015 Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour this fall, with RaeLynn, Ashley Monroe, Clare Dunn and Courtney Cole on the trek as well. The tour is scheduled to begin on Sept. 25 in Billings, Mont. See a full list of upcoming shows at MirandaLambert.com.

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