Nashville can build a shiny new concert venue. It can't make the traffic disappear.
Since The Truth opened Oct. 1, the 4,400-seat music hall in Wedgewood-Houston has, in some cases, drawn more attention for traffic than headliners. A viral TikTok posted by @_jackmcpherson on Oct. 6 showed thousands of Amyl and the Sniffers fans in a line stretching down Chestnut Street.
But between bumper-to-bumper traffic, crowded sidewalks and parking headaches, is getting to The Truth really all that bad?
The whole truth and nothing but the truth is: no, and a little planning goes a long way.
Where do I park to get to the Truth?
Live Nation's three-level venue at 440 Chestnut St. opened with Miranda Lambert and has an October lineup featuring Jack White, Limp Bizkit, The Chicks, Sting and Beck.
The venue's name comes from Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard's famous saying that country music is "three chords and the truth."
The modern brick entertainment complex sits along Chestnut Street in Wedgewood-Houston, a booming neighborhood where passing trains can bring traffic along Fourth Avenue to a standstill for 10 to 30 minutes. Lucky for Nashville residents, there is a free app called "4th & Chestnut Train Detection" that uses a traffic-light system to warn drivers: green means the coast is clear, yellow means Fourth Avenue is blocked and red means "Train!"
Next is parking, which can be expensive.
The Truth offers prepaid parking options through its website, with prices varying by concert. For the Oct. 8 Bleachers show, spots ranged from approximately $16 to $36. The $36 option puts drivers directly underneath the building.
A cheaper alternative is a $10 lot at 1204 Fort Negley Boulevard, roughly an eight-minute walk from the entrance. For local concertgoers with an electric car, applying for a green parking permit, which costs $10 per year, can open up free metered parking options within walking distance as well.
There are some free street parking spaces available in the neighborhood, although you might have better luck getting pulled onstage by the headliner than finding a spot.
The Truth recommends rideshare services and has a designated pickup and drop-off location at Hagan and Merritt streets. The location is roughly a seven-minute walk from the venue. WeGo bus Routes 52 Nolensville Pike and 75 Midtown also serve the area.
Making 'a date day'
Outside The Truth ahead of Switchfoot's Oct. 7 concert, fans had different strategies for avoiding the long lines seen in viral videos.
An employee outside the music hall said the lines can look intimidating, but they move quickly once the doors open. On a night like Switchfoot's, which wasn't fully sold out, getting concertgoers inside typically takes 15 to 20 minutes. For Amyl and the Sniffers fans, it took about a 30 minutes.
Gibson Littleton and his wife took the day off work after seeing the viral video of concertgoers lining Chestnut Street.
"We saw a video of the long line two days ago," Littleton said. "So we said, let's go make a date day out of it."
The couple arrived in Wedgewood-Houston around noon, stopping at Elegy Coffee, Humphreys Street Coffee and a neighborhood deli before joining the line. They paid $30 for parking before prices increased.
"I've gone to concerts in Nashville all my life, so I know how it gets," Littleton said. "I like getting places early if I can."
For Will Sprouse, who traveled from Cullman, Ala., with his father, the solution was booking an Airbnb near the music hall.
"We actually got an Airbnb, so we're staying there and we had parking," Sprouse said. "It was like 10 minutes away so it worked out really well."
Kathy Huffstatler, who lives about an hour west of Nashville, had another strategy. Her son picked her up, they grabbed dinner and headed to The Truth with parking already reserved. She paid $36 for a space underneath the building.
"We drove by here last week on opening night because we were at another venue downtown," Huffstatler said. "It was chaos. The number of people here for the opening night was wild."
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The Truth about parking at Nashville's newest concert venue
