KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Visit Knoxville, in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and Born & Raised Productions, will host a four-part concert series “Sunsphere Sundays” at World’s Fair Park in October.
"It's awesome. The performance lawn is set up for this type of activity so we're just really, really grateful," said Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas. It's about telling the story of why you should visit Knoxville, visit the state, and the celebration of music."
The live music series kicks off on October 10 with pop-rockers COIN.
Concerts continue through October 31 with American folk-rock band Dawes, Brooklyn-based country artists The Lone Bellow, and eight-piece soul band St. Paul and The Broken Bones (respectively).
"All this money is coming in to try to help out and jumpstart some industries that have had a really hard time during COVID," said Born and Raised co-founder Kent Oglesby. "It's the bands as well as road crews, tour managers, agencies, promoters like us, everything so we're really excited to be doing this."
Tickets start at just $10. Shows are sold individually.
Tickets go on sale on September 10 at 10 a.m. A portion of all sales benefits the Sunsphere Fund. For tickets and information, visit sunspheresundays.com.
Here is the Sunsphere Sundays Lineup:
- 10/10 – COIN
- 10/17 – Dawes
- 10/24 – The Lone Bellow
- 10/31 – St. Paul and The Broken Bones
Officials said the Sunsphere Sundays Concert Series informally kicks off the 40th-anniversary celebration of the Knoxville World’s Fair taking place in May 2022. Concertgoers can expect some surprises throughout the four-part series.
In 2019, the city of Knoxville spent about $3 million upgrading the performance lawn for events like this. With the exception of the Moon Taxi Concert in May, this will be one of the first major concerts held since the renovations.
“We are thrilled to host this series with our state tourism partners,” said Kim Bumpas, President of Visit Knoxville. Countless people from all over the world have special memories of live concerts at World’s Fair Park. It feels good to bring back the music and to do so in a way that is safe for the artists, the concertgoers, and all involved. The fact that two of the four concerts fall on University of Tennessee home football weekends is a bonus and something we hope will encourage an extended stay for visiting fans.”