The event takes place over Labor Day Weekend
The second annual Sugar Bowl Country Kickoff, a music and entertainment event to celebrate the start of the 2024 college football season, will be held on August 31st, the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. With four top country music superstars on the bill, the Sugar Bowl Country Kickoff is sure to be one of the most-anticipated country music events of the year as it continues to establish itself as a must-see highlight of Labor Day weekend in New Orleans.
Powerhouse hit-maker Eric Church will headline the event while fans will also get top-notch performances from multi-platinum star Thomas Rhett, multi-platinum award-winning artist Jon Pardi, and the incomparable Ashley McBryde.
Tickets will go on sale Thursday, April 25th at 10 am via Ticketmaster.
Last year’s inaugural Sugar Bowl Country Kickoff featured a legendary performance by superstar Garth Brooks as well as a memorable show by Louisiana’s own Lainey Wilson, and an outstanding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert.
“The first-ever Sugar Bowl Country Kickoff was a tremendous success and featured one of the largest concert crowds in Superdome history,” states Jeff Hundley, the CEO of the Allstate Sugar Bowl. “We’re thrilled this year to welcome four outstanding country music artists to New Orleans for the second annual event. It should be a great show and, given the stature of these artists, will be a nice shot in the arm for the tourism economy.”
Festivities for the Sugar Bowl Country Kickoff on August 31st will begin at Champions Square with NewOrleans.com Tailgate Town, a football-themed interactive experience presented by New Orleans & Company. Full details and event day timeline will be announced at a later date.
Proceeds from the event will go toward assisting the Allstate Sugar Bowl in its support of numerous community programs, including youth events, scholarship programs, and teacher recruitment, recognition, and retention.
A seven-time ACM Award winner, four-time CMA Award winner (including the 2020 award for Entertainer of the Year) and ten-time Grammy nominee, Eric Church has amassed a passionate fan base around the globe known as the Church Choir as well as a critically acclaimed catalog of music. No stranger to major stadium shows, Church performed one-of-a-kind headlining stadium shows at Milwaukee’s American Family Field and Minneapolis’s US Bank Stadium in 2022. In 2019, his Double Down Tour featured a massive stop at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, where he broke the venue’s concert attendance record with more than 56,000 fans in attendance and became the first artist to sell out the venue with a solo lineup.
Arena-packing superstar Thomas Rhett has 18 multi-platinum hits, the longest current streak of consecutive No. 1s in the format, and 15 billion streams. He has been honored with eight ACM Awards, including Entertainer of the Year; two CMA Awards; and five Grammy Awards nominations. He has been recognized with five CMA Triple Play awards for penning three No. 1 songs within 12 months.
Since first hitting the country landscape, Jon Pardi has separated himself from the pack, carving a lane that was all his own by producing, writing, and singing songs he created from the melodies up, and earning praise for it. His breakthrough award-winning album California Sunrise turned him into a star on the strength of multiple No. 1 singles, including “Head Over Boots” and “Dirt on My Boots” earning him CMA New Artist of the Year and ACM Best New Male Artist. Since that breakthrough, he has continued his momentum-earning album of the year nominations for Heartache Medication and Mr. Saturday Night and earning an induction into the Grand Ole Opry.
Grammy, CMA and ACM award winner Ashley McBryde cut her teeth playing country songs in biker bars – and it shows. The Grand Ole Opry member’s 2018 major label debut Girl Going Nowhere landed a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album. She has continued to collect major award recognition with her follow-ups, including her latest critically acclaimed album, The Devil I Know, for which she’s currently touring.
