Blake Shelton will perform at Lake Olmstead Stadium on April 6, 2022. (©Debby Wong/Shutterstock)
By Jennifer McKee
Exciting things are happening now at Lake Olmstead Stadium. It’ll no longer sit defunct, thanks to C4 Live and Destination Augusta—instead becoming a $1.7-million-dollar performance venue that’ll bring in top-name acts such as Blake Shelton and Tim McGraw.
The two headliners, set to take the stage during Masters Week 2022, were announced today at a press conference with C4 Live and the City of Augusta. They’re part of a series of star-studded events that’ll kick off the stadium’s renovations off in style. For more information on tickets and to keep abreast of additional events, visit XPR AUG.
“It’s a celebration about the thrill of music, it’s a celebration about community coming together,” says Michael Perry, one of C4 Live‘s managing partners. “C4 Live’s mission is the creation and delivery of the thrill of live music and entertainment. But we’re taking it a step further, because in this magnificent city of Augusta, part of our mission is the revitalization of Lake Olmstead Stadium.”
While Masters Week 2022 serves as the introduction of the new stadium, C4 Live is planning a year-long slate of events, including the inaugural XPR Soul Music & Food Festival (also taking place in April 2022) at the 14-acre site.
“Soul is at the heart of Augusta,” says Perry. “The expression of this funkified spirit is the soul of this city we’ve come to embrace. We’re so grateful to be able to develop soul programming.”
“Augusta’s always innovating itself and reinventing itself and finding great opportunities,” says Bennish Brown, president and CEO of Destination Augusta. “I really appreciate the fact that we’ve identified this group, they’ve come in and really have caught the essence of our destination. They talk about the soul of our destination, and that can mean a lot of different things, but I think they picked up on soul in every way they needed to.”
C4 Live will also be giving back to the community through ticket sales and community service, as well as providing apprenticeships for those who want to learn the craft of putting on a live show. The first five philanthropic partners they’re working with are the James Brown Academy of Musik Pupils, Jessye Norman School of the Arts, the Augusta Boxing Club, Savannah Riverkeeper and Golden Harvest Food Bank.
“What I see them doing is giving us an experience that we can feel,” says the James Brown Family Foundation’s Deanna Brown Thomas. “When you feel it, it stays with you, because it’s that feeling you’re going to be taken back to. Y’all (C4 Live) are bringing the excitement, but the benefits the community is going to feel. And that is the best part about this.”
