Opry Entertainment Group Acquires Majority Interest in Live Events Producer Southern Entertainment

Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) has acquired a majority interest in the North Carolina-based live events, hospitality and production company Southern Entertainment, whose portfolio of owned or promoted live music events includes the country music festivals Carolina Country Music Fest (Myrtle Beach, S.C.), Barefoot Country Music Fest (Wildwood, N.J.), Lovin Life Music Fest (Charlotte, N.C.), Greenville Country Music Fest (Greenville, S.C.) and the upcoming Field & Stream Outdoor Music Fest, which will launch this year in Winnsboro, S.C.

Founded by Bob Durkin and Rob Pedlow in 2015, Southern Entertainment has produced more than 200 events in the United States.

“We’ve always looked at the festival business as a significant opportunity for us given the sort of shared focus on live events and venues that we do,” Patrick Moore, CEO of Opry Entertainment Group, tells Billboard. “Rob and Bob are 10 years into this business and they’ve created distinctive experiences for fans and for artists in really exciting destination markets.”

Says Durkin, “[OEG] had similar synergies when it came to growth, when it came to customer service, hospitality, the things that are what we think drive the business.”

For OEG, a subsidiary of Ryman Hospitality Properties, the new investment marks an additional expansion of its footprint in the live music space. OEG’s portfolio includes not only iconic country music mainstay the Grand Ole Opry (the Opry celebrates its milestone 100-year anniversary in 2025) and the Ryman Auditorium, but also WSM Radio and newer additions including the Blake Shelton-inspired Ole Red brand and the Luke Combs-inspired venue, bar and restaurant Category 10. In 2022, Ryman Hospitality Properties completed a deal that includes iconic Austin, Tex., venue ACL Live at Moody Theater. OEG is also a minority, non-controlling investor in the country lifestyle brand Whiskey Riff.

Moore declined to provide the specific percentage of OEG’s majority interest in Southern Entertainment, but notes that the combination “enables both businesses to tap into markets and demographics and communities that we can’t do individually.”

One of the biggest priorities for Southern Entertainment this year is the inaugural Field & Stream Music Fest, which is slated for Oct. 3-5 with headliners including Eric Church and Miranda Lambert; the festival is co-produced by Field & Stream alongside key investors Church, Morgan Wallen and Southern Entertainment.

“Field & Stream is something we are very excited about because it gives a unique feel for a music festival,” says Durkin. “You celebrate music and community with your fellow people and this one’s going to be in the middle of the woods and we have to take advantage of everything outdoors. There’ll be fishing aspects to it, hiking, mountain biking, so it’s really unique. What’s exciting, too, is that it is driven by artists. Eric Church, he’s from [North] Carolina. And the Field & Stream Magazine and the brand is iconic. So I think we can only help each other.”

Crucially, the investment will align the two companies’ shared focus on artist development and spotlighting emerging artists. “We have the same kind of general vision strategy and approach, and that goes for emerging artists and artist development,” says Moore. Following the deal, Southern Entertainment will integrate OEG’s artist development programs into its flagship country music festivals, where many Opry members and Opry NextStage artists have performed in recent years. The Opry’s NextStage Class of 2024 features artists 49 Winchester, Anne Wilson, Charles Wesley Godwin, Chase Matthew, Ella Langley, Wyatt Flores, Flatland Cavalry, Josh Ross and Madeline Edwards. Flores, Flatland Cavalry and Ross are among the current Opry NextStage artists who have played at Southern Entertainment festivals.