This huge country music star will perform at an unlikely Charlotte venue next month

It’s possible this news slipped by local country-music fans when it was announced back in the spring, so here’s a reminder: Brad Paisley is bringing his summer tour here next month, and while his regular stop is PNC Music Pavilion to the north of town, this time he’ll be playing on the edge of uptown Charlotte.

The Aug. 31 show — officially billed as the Belk Tailgate Concert — will take place at Memorial Stadium in Elizabeth, marking the first major concert at the venue since Pearl Jam and Hootie and the Blowfish performed there in the fall of 2006.

Paisley, a West Virginia native, will co-headline the show with Kane Brown, who is from Tennessee; mentioning their home states is apropos because the West Virginia University Mountaineers will take on the University of Tennessee Volunteers in the Belk College Kickoff the next afternoon (Sept. 1) at Bank of America Stadium.

Opening acts include The Davisson Brothers Band (also from West Virginia) and Dee Jay Silver (a Texas native).

Memorial Stadium in Elizabeth is due for a $32 million rebuild, and will eventually become the home of the Charlotte Independence soccer team and Charlotte Hounds lacrosse team, and could well return to its concert-hosting days on a more regular basis. The construction project could take more than three years.

Bob Durkin of Southern Entertainment Group said the Belk concert likely will be the last big event before the overhaul.

“We’re doing this concert because the game’s in town,” he said, but “it kind of gives you a sneak peek of what’s to come.”

Built as a Depression-era Works Progress Administration effort and opened in 1936, Memorial Stadium flourished for decades as a venue for fairs, conventions, concerts and high school football games — many of which were followed by sock-hops in the adjacent Grady Cole Center. A stream runs beneath it, and at one time, there was a small lake there that served the city’s water works.

Tickets for the tailgate concert are available at eventbrite.com. Durkin said capacity for the concert is about 15,000 fans, and that Paisley will perform a full set.

Details on the actual football game are here.

This story was originally published July 30, 2018 at 5:38 PM.