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Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025 (Day 1, 22nd August 2025)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

The Sound of Nashville Open Air is back. After the 2024 debut had a bit of a weird schedule, with main stage bands out on Friday and Sunday, the sophomore 2025 event in Cologne turned into a proper one. Three days full of interesting artists promised an entertaining time at the Freideck open air stage at Die Kantine.

This posting comes with 608 major size pictures as part of the concert gallery.

 

Freideck / Die Kantine – About The Venue

The venue did not change compared to the 2024 edition. The Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025 was hosted by the lovely, some 900 people capacity Freideck open air area. In July 2025, i saw the amazing show by Dasha at the same place. It is driven by Die Kantine. The major venue also drives the Yard Club, to where the July 2025 Jesse Daniel show had to be moved due to thunderstorms.

The venue in the North of Cologne is rather close to the A1 motorway. However, traffic issues were expected, majorly to the parallel gamescom gaming fair. While parking is a bit of a hassle there, you can easily reach the venue by trams 12 and 15 (Wilhelm-Sollmann-Str. stop). There is also a bus connection with line 122.

 

Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025, Day 1 – About The Artists

Nolan Taylor was the artist to open the Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025. He is a country artist who is originally from Blanchester in Ohio, USA. He started to release songs in 2018 (with Realize). His big breakthrough was the 2023 single 68, which has been streamed some 8.5 million times on Spotify only. In January 2025, he released his self-titled debut album.

The second artist on stage was Evan Bartels. He is originally from Nebraska. The 1993-born artist released his debut album The Devil, God & Me in 2017. His most recent major release is the May 2025 EP To Make You Cry.

Thereafter, Cologne featured Benjamin Steer. He is a British-US-American artist. Just before the festival, he released his EP Figuring It Out. Excluding acoustic versions, it was already his third EP overall.

To me, the first big highlight on stage was Alana Springsteen. The penultimate artist of the day was born on 16th October 2000 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The country music lady moved to Nashville already at the age of 10 to run a music career. Her debut EP Slow Down is dated as of 2019, though. Her only album so far is Twenty Something, released in 2023. She also was part of several successful collaborations, like the 2024 Hot Honey with Tiesto.

The first day closed with Cameron Whitcomb. Right after the Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025, he kicks off his Mile High Tour through Europe (see my Tour Date Overview). The 22 year old Canadian was born in Alberta, but is nowadays based in British Columbia. In 2022, he was eliminated in the Top 20 of American Idol. So far, he has released two EPs. His album The Hard Way is scheduled for 26th September 2025.

 

Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025, Day 1 – The Shows

Nolan Taylor opened the Sound of Nashville almost in time. His set took 35 minutes, a bit shorter than announced. He impressed with his intense voice, even though his songs were rather calm and there was comparably little audience at that Friday afternoon. He featured songs like Love Until We Die. His stories were good, but Cologne needed some warm-up. He closed his set with his biggest song, 68.

You felt that Evan Bartels was already known to the German audience due to his C2C appearance from the very beginning. Arriving rather late at the venue, he did his soundcheck right on stage, which directly ran into his first song. Like Taylor before, he shared many personal stories. For example, at Death Of A Good Man, he talked about his first steps into a Nashville music career. His set began some five minutes before it was originally scheduled, closing after 35 minutes, so that he closed some ten minutes before the announced time.

 

A British at a Nashville Festival

Benjamin Steer joked about that he is a British guy on a Sound of Nashville show and promised to use his American accent. He performed a nice set, which overall had a rather pop-ish touch. Nonetheless, he drove the audience nicely with his 30 minute set, which still closed a bit earlier than expected, around 18:40.

Then, Alana Springsteen stepped on stage. She interacted with the fans and felt to have quite a strong support in Cologne. For one song, she even took the pink base cap of a fan. She was on stage for almost an hour, being slightly behind the announced schedule. With later songs like Hold My Beer, Hypocrite or a Carrie Underwood cover, she boosted the audience even further. After she finished her set with Goodbye Looks Good On You, the lines at the merchandise tent for hugs and pictures were young.

 

Active Cameron Whitcomb

Maybe the most touching and definitely the most active performance of the day was by Cameron Whitcomb. Due to the strict 22:00 curfew, his long taped intro initially made me struggle whether he would be able to perform his full set. He was extremely active on stage (which made me struggle to take pictures) from the very beginning. You also saw how he drive the audience. Also his covers like Teenage Dirtbag (original by Wheatus) worked well and he soon ran over the stage topless, driving his fans.

However, it was not only a very energetic, but also very personal performance by the Canadian, who multiple times thanked his fans that they helped him to get clean and sober. With songs like his latest single Fragile, he showed a very different side of his life. Especially a Tyler Childers acoustic cover was very moving. After emotional tracks like Flower Tattoos, Bad Apple kicked off the rocking and energetic finale of his set.

 

Sound of Nashville Open Air 2025, Day 1 – The Gallery

Here are 608 major size pictures of the show. They are located in the concert gallery:

 

 

 

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Here are all my concert reviews related to Cologne:

 

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