KENNESAW — The lineup for the Shaky Boots Music Festival coming to Kennesaw in May was announced Tuesday and includes big-name country music acts such as Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts.
The festival is set for May 16 and 17, and advance tickets go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. The general admission tickets will start at $169 and VIP ticket packages are available for $499.
Also set to appear at the festival are Dierks Bentley, The Band Perry, Dwight Yoakam, Jason Isbell, Old Crow Medicine Show and Sara Evans.
Shaky Boots co-founder Tim Sweetwood, who also puts on the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, said he was surprised Georgia didn’t already have a first-class country music festival yet. He said he hopes to “bring a festival to the state that doesn’t already exist. And we already know how many country fans are in the south in general, let alone Georgia itself.”
Sweetwood said he’s hoping for about 30,000 people at the festival each day.
“That’s the hope. I’ll tell you how ticket sales go,” Sweetwood said with a laugh.
The festival is set to take place at the Kennesaw State University Sports and Entertainment Park at 3200 George Busbee Parkway in Kennesaw.
The venue could hold about 35,000 people, Sweetwood said, but the specific capacity has yet to be determined.
“The events that have been at this location before, like the hot air balloon festival and an (electronic dance music) festival, they didn’t use as much of the grounds as we’re using,” he said. “So we’re even using more of the grounds, so we may be able to hold more than that in years to come, but this is a comfortable amount.”
Sweetwood said he decided to have the festival in Kennesaw because the city is close to Atlanta and is accessible from many different areas.
“And frankly, it was the site. The site is — if you haven’t been there — the Kennesaw State entertainment area is great. It’s very easy to get in, very easy to get out and (has) really large spaces to host the stages and the folks we’re looking to have.”
Holly Bass, CEO of Cobb Travel & Tourism, said the festival will be one of the largest events to come to the county that she knows of.
“We are very excited about the Shaky Boots festival and the opportunities that it brings to our community,” she said. “For the visitor, we think that it’s going to be just fantastic. … I think that it’s going to be great for our community and that it’s just one more way that we are really stepping to the forefront and making a name for ourselves as Cobb County.”
Sweetwood said he was able to extend invitations to these artists through his connections in the music industry, and he is happy so many of them agreed to be a part of the festival.
“At the end of the day, it’s kind of an artist decision,” he said. “So it’s cool and flattering to know that they want to take a chance, just like I’m taking a chance.”
One of the sponsors of the show is the Songs For Kids Foundation, which brings music into hospitals for kids experiencing severe health issues. Sweetwood is a member of the Atlanta-based nonprofit and said at last year’s Shaky Knees festival, a few of the kids got to perform on stage.
“What we’ve done in the past, and then what we’re doing as well with this, is we normally get artists to interact (with kids). Last year, at the Shaky Knees Music Festival, we actually had guys from The Replacements and guys from Local Natives and other bands that performed with kids from the hospital. So we found kids that had a little bit of musical talent and they got up there and either sang or got to play the guitar, stuff like that. We’re going to try to bring that in as well this year.”
Sweetwood said some of the proceeds from the festival will be donated to the foundation, and representatives from the nonprofit will be on site to offer festival-goers more information about the organization.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit shakyboots.com.