Guitar Pull concert brings sold-out crowd to James Brown Arena
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The James Brown Arena filled with country music and 6,000 fans as the Guitar Pull made a big return. This comes as city leaders make new plans to pay for a new arena after voters rejected the $240 million project.
Concert-goers packed into the James Brown Arena to hear the sweet sounds of country music artists like Darius Rucker and Scottie McCreery.
“It’s wonderful to be out and about with people not wearing masks and just enjoying seeing people’s smiling faces looking forward to a great show,” said Kathy Arena, concert-goer.
This was the first Guitar Pull concert in 728 days and it was a sell-out crowd.
“They’ve been waiting for two years and I think they are finally ready to release all that pent-up energy,” said Bryan Axelson, Kicks 99 Wake Up Crew.
Axelson says it feels incredible to be back in the arena – but to them, bigger is better.
“This is a huge show and to be able to in whatever venue it is we just want to be able to have it at the biggest venue possible and get the most amount of people in we can,” he said.
The Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority says Tuesday’s sell-out show is a great example of why we need a bigger, better arena, so we see more big-name artists. It’s why they’ve hired a lobbyist to help find federal or state dollars to fund the new JBA construction.
“A sell-out tonight is 6,000 people if we had this event at the new arena tonight we would have at least 10,000 people there so that shows you the difference in the size of the arena,” said Brad Usry, Coliseum Authority vice president.
He says the main reason they’re hiring the lobbyist is to help with funds they don’t know about or help get the funding they already know about but aren’t sure how to access. The next event at the arena is the Dinosaur Adventure this Saturday. Showtime is 9 a.m. and tickets start at $25.
And the arena may be obsolete but it’s busy. Travis Tritt will be performing this Friday at 8 p.m. There’s a Dinosaur Adventure show on Saturday and Sunday and a couple of holiday shows. One of those includes the Million Dollar Quartet Christmas on Nov. 26 and A Rudolph Musical on Dec. 11.
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