Cowboy boots adorned the feet of countless CMA Fest attendees. From fire engine red to sparkles and 4-inch heels, these boots may be 10 years or 12 hours old.
Dori Yeater from Austin, Texas, said she and her friends saw many people who looked like they bought their boots new for the four-day country music fesival in downtown Nashville June 5-8, but she knew walking in new cowboy boots would have been painful.
“I’ve been wearing cowboy boots since I was a baby,” Yeater said.
Yeater’s friend, Adriana Hernandez who is also from Texas, wore her boots for the first time June 7 and said Karen Hernandez, the third friend in the group, doesn’t own her own boots.
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“She doesn’t even own a pair of cowboy boots,” Adriana Hernandez said. “These are her daughter’s.”
Sarah Seger of Rockford, Illinois, also borrowed someone else’s boots. After two hours at CMA Fest, they were already hurting her feet.
“I have to wear them though,” Seger said. “Beauty is pain, so I’m going to stick it through.”
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Line Dancers perform on Broadway on the second day of CMA Fest in Nashville , Tenn., Friday, June 6, 2025.
Seger’s roommate at college, Addison Sellers, bought her boots used to avoid the pain of breaking them in.
“I got these bad boys at Goodwill,” Sellers said.
Another fan, Candace Owens (no, not the political commentator), recently moved to Tennessee from California and bought her tall cowboy boots June 6. She started wearing her boots at 9:45 a.m. the next morning and struggled with the pain throughout the day.
Nick Boule and Brielle Gregorio hold hands as Jackson Dean performs on the third day of CMA Fest in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, June 7, 2025.
“Breaking them in hurts a little bit,” Owens said. “But it’s cool.”
Debbie Justice from Cleveland, Ohio, had her pair of boots for four years but bought a pair of sparkly pink boots June 6 that she intends to wear June 8. Her friend, Tina O’Neill, brainstormed some ways Justice could break in the pink boots before then.
“Sleep in them,” O’Neill said. “Then they’ll feel better.”
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Are boots made for walking? Some CMA Fest fans suffer for fashion