CMA Music Festival airing on ABC Wednesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WLS) -- The CMA Music Festival brings thousands of fans to Nashville each summer for a celebration of country music and its brightest stars.

"Now it seems like it's so much bigger, and more and more people are coming from all over the place. And there's a lot more energy," said Carrie Underwood.

"This is our time to celebrate the fans for all the support they give us all year for country music as a whole and artists individually," said Miranda Lambert. "They're the reason we have jobs. They're the reason we get to go out on tours and put out records."

"It's like the greatest concentration of country music fans. It is like concentrated from everywhere, it's like an average night for Luke Bryan, but it's super cool for us," said one member of Little Big Town."

"It's what I live for as an artist, that moment to walk out on stage," Bryan said. "I've had a song out on the charts for a couple months and the next thing you know I get to play it in front of this crowd and watch them react, all the flash bulbs, it's pretty magical."

"It all comes back to great songs, that's what the country music is all about, so I love being part of it, and it's the most special gig of the entire year," Dierks Bentley said.