Billy Joel’s stadium concert in Charlotte gets a new date — and it’s not until 2021
Fans who were hoping to catch Billy Joel in Charlotte next month are now going to have to wait another full year to see him at Bank of America Stadium.
In fact, the upcoming concert — originally scheduled for Saturday, April 18 — has been postponed for almost exactly 365 days. The new show date? Saturday, April 17, 2021.
In a press release, Tepper Sports Entertainment said tickets purchased for the 2020 concert will be honored on the rescheduled date.
There was no mention of the reason for the postponement, although at this point, there doesn’t really need to be; it’s yet another addition to a growing list of events that have been postponed or canceled in Charlotte in response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Just as an example, in the past week, the schedule of events at the city’s second-largest venue — Spectrum Center — has been wiped clean for the foreseeable future, with the suspension of the NBA season and the postponement of a Michael Bublé concert, the Lit AF Tour hosted by Martin Lawrence, and the Harlem Globetrotters’ exhibition game. The Winter Jam Christian music festival also was canceled.
Joel’s show, meanwhile, would have marked the first concert at Bank of America Stadium in almost eight years, and would have christened a new era for the venue, which last fall pledged to get back into the concert business.
A week ago, four shows were committed to playing on the Panthers’ home field over the next few months. But half of them are now on hold. The Rolling Stones bowed out of their July 1 concert at the stadium earlier this week (their makeup date is TBA), and while it may be a little longer before a decision is made about the Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe on July 11, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if the Garth Brooks show set for May 2 gets bumped soon.
(For the record, the stadium hasn’t hosted a concert since country stars Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw brought their “Brothers of the Sun Tour” to the stadium in June 2012. The Rolling Stones played the only other show there — in October 1997, back when it was Ericsson Stadium.)
This was one of just six U.S. stadiums Joel was set to play in 2020, according to Live Nation. At 70 years old, the native New Yorker continues to be one of the biggest concert draws in the world, selling out big shows with relative ease thanks to a legion of fans who consider hearing him perform “Piano Man” live a bucket-list moment.
Thursday’s news of the Charlotte postponement came just a day after Joel shelved a big New York City show amid the coronavirus pandemic: The concert he was to play at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, May 2, has been postponed to Friday, Nov. 13. (Joel performs once each month at the arena as part of his long-running residency there.)
His last visit to Charlotte was on Dec. 5, 2015, when he played at the former Time Warner Cable Arena.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 9:13 AM with the headline "Billy Joel’s stadium concert in Charlotte gets a new date — and it’s not until 2021."
