Bluegrass Underground

This may be one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever attended. I attended the 3-​day pbs taping of bluegrass underground. Although I only made it to a little over one day of shows, I was impressed. In awe of the venue, the bands, everything.
Being underground for the concert puts you inside a concert venue inside a cavern. As you walk in, down into the cave, you move past cave formations and a lit underground pool. Eventually you hear the music and enter into a open room under towering rock walls and a huge chandelier. The seating area and the stage is small and personal so you’re fairly close to the bands.
The bands ranged from raw bluegrass to soul and each one gave an amazing performance and had me rocking in my seat — er I mean, my rock.

This was super cool! I would highly recommend it for anyone who likes live music. I can’t tell you enough how happy we were to do this. I mean really, how many places can you watch live music in a cave!!!
We aren’t super into bluegrass, but we appreciate live music and even more so we appreciate good music. This had both.
It’s kind of a haul from Nashville, but the drive off of the highway is pleasant. There are a ton of gas stations so don’t worry, you won’t run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Parking is a little tricky, they need to park you so make sure to build in time for that. There is also only one road in so it will back up a bit. Once you are parked you head up to the store to grab your tickets. The grounds are very pretty and wooded so stop a second to take in a deep breath of fresh air! From there you will walk down a pebble path to the cave. It’s like a 5 minute walk. Once you get to the cave a guide leads you down to the venue. It’s another 5 – 8 minute walk. The hill down to the cave floor is pretty steep, but not unmanageable. Once down there are chairs and picnic tables. You can grab a seat wherever. You can also sit on the cave wall.
While we were there a storm rolled through. We had no idea, except that the lights flashed. SCARY!!! It was fine, they have generators. This isn’t their first rodeo!
The bands are on schedule so make sure you arrive on time. They have a snack bar that serves soda, coffee, candy, and chili dogs. There is also a merch table and they have bathrooms. There were plenty of kids in the cave and even some babies. It’s really a great experience for people of all ages. If you are thinking about it, then just do it! This isn’t something you will regret.

Incredible one of a kind experience.
Glad I could be there. The music, the armosphere, the acoustics… Amazing!
Just one star less for poor quality of food/​drinks and quite hardcore bathrooms.
But hey, it’s a cave!!!
Bucket list experience!

This is an incredible venue. After a not too long walk from the main building to the cave you enter the cool Cumberland Caverns. A meandering walk brings you through the caverns (take your time and look around, it’s awesome) and it eventually opens up to the Volcano Room, 333 feet below the ground. The room is huge, holds around 600 people. The desent into the cave is a bit steep, so be careful. It’s fully equipped with concession stands and rest rooms. There is a grand chanellier above you.
Whether you sit in the chairs provided, or perch yourself on the many rock surfaces, you will have a good view of the stage. We saw Old Salt Union and Lonesome River Band. Both groups were outstanding. The sound quality is superb, but as you can imagine, stringed instruments need to be retuned on several occasions.
I can’t imagine a better concert experience, it really is unique. We plan on returning as often as we can.

Beautiful place to see a show, amazing acoustics.

They said they would send me a refund over confusion from their tickets and they never did.
I bought the cave tour add on to a show and the receipt email I got was worded in a way that made it sound like I would be able to see the concert. I didn’t know for sure though so I tried reaching the company. Two weeks before the show I left two voicemails and sent two emails. They didn’t respond back until four days before the show and they told me the add ons don’t count to watch the concert. By this time I had already booked a place to stay and counted on going to the show with my girlfriend
I then sent them two voicemails and two more emails asking for a refund they promised to return but they don’t respond to anything. Their customer support is terrible and if you make a mistake in your purchases they WILL keep your money and not contact you back

The music was incredible and the venue is awesome. We did the bucket list package for our anniversary and the cavern, tour and music are worth at least five stars. The accommodations for the two nights included in this package are at Fall Creek Falls State Park which is an about an hour drive each way from the cavern in which the show is held. The accommodations are in a motel (not a cabin). Read reviews of FCF before you go. At the show, the bucket list package is well worth it.

Absolutely beautiful venue space. I attended a Manchester Orchestra concert here and it was probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to. There was plenty of seating in folding chairs and picnic tables as well. Concessions offered a good variety of items and they do take cards now! Of course the acoustics are amazing here and I loved the overall experience of the cave itself. Our tickets were will– call and the line for the show wristbands wasn’t too much of a hassle. This venue/​attraction is definitely worth the drive from over an hour away and if you’re lucky to catch a concert here, I guarantee it will be unlike any you’ve attended before. I will definitely return to do an actual cave tour!

First off the reviews that you can bring in food is wrong we went by the reviews and were told NO. Secondly they also would not let us take in our chairs which plainly showed that you could on their website pics.(although we were told no I saw two women in camp chairs as we left, again the privledged few). The show and cavern would have been great had it not been for the seating. I’m sorry but for $ 140.00 for two tickets and get there early only to find that the good seats where taken and the good ones that where not taken had «reserved» on them so much for general seating. I guess you have to be part of the «family» to score a decent seat. They had set up chairs behind the filming crew and it was impossible to see anything because the floor gradually rolled downward making the chairs lower than the camera crew so no you could not see. Most people were standing in order to see anything but I’m sorry for that kind of money I expect a seat that I can see at least something. They also stopped us at bottom of hill and shuttled us up to the main parking area and guess what it was only half full so I guess that too was reserved. We left after about twenty minutes due to not being able to see nor stand for the performance. This place has it covered with their «no refund» policy so after they get your money its too bad for you. Will never go back and will advise anyone I can about there no refund policy (I still intend to protest to CC bank).For this kind of money I can see bluegrass anywhere and have a decent seat.

This place is a hidden treasure. I wish they had some decent places to stay in McMinnville as this little town has a lot of potential. The caverns were awesome and I saw the civil wars and it was great. The staff were friendly and food prices were cheaper than what we had anticipated. If they promoted this place correctly it would give people a reason to come to this part of Tennessee besides just coming for bonaroo.

I’d heard of Cumberland Caverns since I was a kid, but only recently learned there were bluegrass music events held there. (I think I saw Ricky Skaggs on a PBS show and first learned of the Bluegrass Underground venue.) Well, I just had to check this out!
As it turned out — — what a treat!
First off, this past Saturday posed an excellent day for the ~2 hr. drive from Nashville. (If you are on the east side of town, I highly recommend jumping off I-​40E at Lebanon and taking the more scenic route along TN-​26/​US-​70 beyond Watertown and on through Smithville. It certainly beat a boring I-​24 trip hands down!)
The event started at 1pm and we arrived about 11:45am. This permitted a leisurely pace and no need to rush. Parking is provided on a small gravel lot and a larger, adjacent grass field. With the nice weather, this was no problem. (I suspect rain could lead to a more «soggy» experience, though.)
It was just a short walk to the ticket office/​souvenir shop to pick up our tickets (actually, wristbands) and then a quarter-​mile (?) stroll on a wide gravel path to the cave entrance. A line had already formed. There were ~80 people ahead of us. (Note: tickets are «general admission,» so early arrival is advised.)
At roughly Noon, they began admission and we walked into the cave, apparently descending 333 feet by walking along a dirt path through the cave about ¹⁄₈ mile in distance. This took us to the main performance area — the «Volcano Room» — where there was seating for ~400 people. (see picture.)
The performance began right on time (at 1pm) and featured The SteelDrivers. They were EXCELLENT: Great on-​stage presence, good blend of instruments and a variety of vocals that covered traditional bluegrass sound to new paces and intonations that were very pleasing! (see picture) The Volcano Room provided great acoustics, too! They played for about 1:45 minutes and returned for a brief encore.
All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable event, with an entertaining and satisfying group of very talented musicians! I highly recommend the experience!
A few planning thoughts:
1. Cave Temperature — They claim the Volcano Room has a consistent temp of 56 degrees. Honestly, I found it very comfortable. I wore long pants and a short-​sleeved shirt — I took a jacket, but never put it on. (My wife brought a sweatshirt and put it on part-​way through the performance.)
2. Seating — consider bringing a seat cushion for added comfort. The provided seating is metal chairs and a few wooden benches… Some people brought their own lawn chairs, but the terrain is a bit too uneven for those, in my opinion.
We chose seating on one of the wooden benches (gaining a somewhat elevated side-​view of the stage.) But, the ol’ butt can get numb after a while on a flat wooden bench!
3. Bathrooms — There are bathrooms provided both behind the souvenir shop, as well as at the back of the Volcano Room. I’d suggest you use the facilities before entering the cave (appeared to be less congestion/​shorter lines).
4. Eating — We bought sandwiches and water at the concession stand (in the rear of the Volcano Room), but they only offered the standard concession stand fare. Service was extremely slow and moderately disorganized (Note: cash only, too). It’d be a pity to be stuck in line when the performance begins… I’d suggest you pack a lunch and bring it in with you (permitted).
In summary, this was a very enjoyable experience. With the right performance, I will return!

Attended Bluegrass Underground for the first time this past Saturday May 22^nd. Was a very beautiful drive up from Atlanta, well once we got past Chattanooga. We arrived at about 10AM and the first cave tour was at 11 so we signed up for that.
The ticket situation for the concert could have been handled a bit better. We purchased our tickets online beforehand but couldn’t pick them up until 11, when the cave tour was starting. So that added a bit of stress. The cave tour ended in the Volcano Room, where the concert was held, thankfully it ended right at noon so we were able to grab seats before the people only attending the concert started to arrive just after noon.
The room was quite impressive, 333 feet below ground, about 90 feet from floor to ceiling with a giant chandelier. The concessions were all reasonably priced, cash only (we had planned ahead on that but for those who had no cash they were sadly SOL.)
The only complaint I really had was in the acts themselves (the only real traditional bluegrass act was Ricky Skaggs) and some shortened set lengths due to the PBS taping.
We will definitely return with the added knowledge that we could have brought our own food and beverages (not a giant cooler or anything). We will try and make a weekend out of it next time and stay in Nashville or Chattanooga for the night.