Chris Stapleton, the five-time Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter who upended country music with his 2015 debut album “Traveller,” is headlining Country Thunder Arizona next April.
He joins Arizona native Dierks Bentley, pop-country singer Brett Eldredge and multiplatinum-selling superstar Tim McGraw on the 2019 festival main stage April 11-14 in Florence.
It will be the closest Stapleton has come to Tucson since he opened for Hank Williams Jr. at the AVA at Casino del Sol in September 2016.
Stapleton, who plays sold-out arenas and has rarely, if ever, played festivals, will close out the Florence festival on April 14.
A handful of opening acts also have been announced, including two sets of brothers — rising stars Brothers Osborne, who have a chart-climbing duet with Bentley; and the Canadian brothers’ duo High Valley, who played the Oro Valley Music Festival earlier this month — and veterans Trace Adkins, Lonestar and Clay Walker.
Newcomers Abby Anderson, the Hunter Brothers and Brandon Lay are also set to perform.
Country Thunder Arizona broke attendance records nearly every day in 2018 with audiences numbering well over 26,000 a day and helped Country Thunder Music Festivals land the 2018 Academy of Country Music’s Festival of the Year award. Country Thunder also operates events in Wisconsin, Saskatchewan, Canada, and, new next year, Kissimmee, Florida, set for March.
Four-day festival tickets are $130 through midnight Oct. 22 at countrythunder.com; the price will go up to $160 after that.
Arizona native Dierks Bentley waved an Arizona flag when he played Country Thunder in 2012. The 2020 festival is back on, rescheduled for late October.
Tim McGraw is among the headliners of the 2019 Country Thunder Arizona Festival, his first time playing the four-day Florence event. This was McGraw when he played the AVA at Casino del Sol in 2011 — the first time he played here since 1995.
Brett Eldridge arrives at the BMI Awards at BMI Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn.
