I lived in the transition zone for 12 years, and struggled with fescue for 9 of those years. Then I moved to a house (in Richmond, VA) which had a fescue/bermuda mix. I know this goes against all lawn care wisdom, but it worked for me. I mowed it at about 3", and when it got hot, the bermuda filled in the bare patches in the fescue. I only reseeded in the fall once in 3 years and the fescue did great. It was an established yard, and if you want a mix, you may have to overseed fescue in the fall, since your spring crop may have severe damage. Now I am down south and have a bermuda lawn. I don't really like the dormant season (5-6 months here) but it is way too hot for fescue here unless you have some shade, which I don't. I say go for it...throw down some bermuda seed!

I'd say yes, the fine fescue I have is very very thin,when I try to let the lawn grow to 4+ inches it flops over. I'm going to kill/replace this year. I used 100% Turf Type Tall Fescue last year (mostly Rebel variants) and its much darker, grows tall, and has a slightly thicker blade. To be fair the fine fescue I have was some old cheap mix that I never fed. After feeding it darkened a bit, but not as deep. The fine fescue thin blades allow it to grow in shadier conditions. Not sure of the science behind that, but its what is recommended for shade. How much shade do you have in that spot? If it only gets a few hours of direct sunlight, you may need a fine.

i think a big part of it is that Fine Fescue needs less (about half if not more) fertilizer than TTTF. With these yards having fertilizings skipped very often, or not fertilzied in years, but yes clippings are mulched as fertilizer, just might be all the fertilizer the Fine Fescue needed, but the TTTF died out from lack of fertilizer. Besides that though I am extremely impressed by the full sun, no irrigation tolerance Fine Fescue has shown, I'm not sure if it's chewings, hard, crepping red, etc fine fescue but leads me to think it's one of the spreading/creeping verities because of the thickness it created. So don't overlook Fine Fescue in full sun,,, although it can be killed by too much synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (possibly even by standard application rates of companies like true green and scotts), and some might not like the look of it, and it does rip out quite easily compared to other more foot traffic tolerant grasses like KBG and TTTF, but it's a tough frkn grass I wouldn't count out.

Why are you only planting tall fescue? I don't have a good feel for growing grass in your area/zone but am thinking you may be able to grow Kentucky Bluegrass or a combination of both. Here we use a mix of mostly perennial ryegrass with some Kentucky Blue grass and fescue. There's a mix called Penn State mix that's popular here with those who don't want the weeds and inappropriate grasses in the big box mixes. From what I remember if you have too much fescue and/or bluegrass in the mix you tend to get Red Dust and Red Thread which are fungus issues ( I think ). But that's here and you're there. Perennial rye grass sprouts in a week, while the blue grass and fescues take about 3 weeks. It's getting late. If I were doing the job I'd aerate the whole lawn and spread my seed and then cover it with a thin (inch) of mushroom compost purchased in bulk. Keep it damp. Some use peat; but mushroom compost won't float away on water like peat. If you're looking for a dealer in grass seed search for a Pennington dealer. My dealer here sells the Penn State mix and several blue grass mixes and several fescues from them. You can scoop seed into a plastic bag out of a hopper and put it on the scale. They also sell in 50 pound bags. There may be a mix more appropriate for your area. You could perhaps borrow a pull behind aerator or rent a self propelled. There's a professional model that pushes 8-10" rods into the ground. It's built to use on fine lawns so won't disturb the lay of the land, however any aerator is going to lift the whole lawn, Good luck