New York City has always been the one major market that country music just could not tap... until now. Less than two years after the biggest city in America got its first country radio station, NYC will be getting its first country music festival. Today (Oct. 29), Live Nation, Founders Entertainment and music star Dierks Bentley announced the FarmBorough Music Festival for June 2015.
Bentley, Luke Bryan and Brad Paisley will headline New York's first major country music festival event, which is set to take place June 26-28 at Randall's Island.
Other performers include Ashley Monroe, Brandy Clark, Brothers Osbourne, Canaan Smith, Cassadee Pope, Charlie Worsham, Dallas Smith, Dustin Lynch, Joe Nichols, Dwight Yoakam, Jon Pardi, Lindsay Ell, Kip Moore, Maddie & Tae, Raelynn, Randy Houser, The Cadillac Three, Striking Matches, The Railers and Wade Bowen.
According to a press conference held this morning at the Gramercy Hotel in New York, Live Nation president of country touring Brian O'Connell also teased that there will be "special guests" at the three-day festival, though he couldn't quite disclose who those would be yet.
Though New York is a city where many festivals come, flop and then go, and a place notoriously cold to country music, O'Connell, Bentley and Founders Entertainment's Jordan Wolowitz (co-founder of Governors Ball, also held at Randall's Island) are confident that a star-filled lineup and a central NYC location will help to make FarmBorough succeed. Though they acknowledge the "crazy" nature of the event and the risk.
Dierks Bentley, LiveNation announcing the #farmborough festival in NYC for June 2015.
A photo posted by Music Times (@themusictimes) on Oct 10, 2014 at 7:27am PDT
"I thought, 'what was the craziest thing I could do? It's not hold a festival in Washington state, not in southeastern Michigan, not the Vegas Strip.' Then, into my like walked Jordan Wolowitz literally about a year ago and said, 'Hey, you crazy S.O.B., let's go to New York City.' And that's where FamBorough was born," said O'Connell. "FarmBorough to me is the penultimate in the resume."
FarmBorough will take place June 26-28 on Randall's Island in New York City. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday, Nov. 6. General admission passes for the three-day festival will cost $225.
