CHARLESTON, W.Va.— Following last week’s announcement made about a two-day country music festival coming to GoMart Ballpark, Charleston Dirty Birds owner and CEO Andy Shea said more music and other events are potentially in store at the venue.
He sat down with Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin Monday on 580 Live where he said bringing concerts and other exciting events to the stadium has always been a vision of his.
“It’s something that I’ve really, truly always wanted to do since I became the owner of the team in Charleston, formerly Power of course when I first took over, now the Dirty Birds,” he said on 580 Live.
During the show, Shea reminisced about the Wiz Khalifa concert held at the stadium upon his first season working with the Dirty Birds, but Covid-19 had since then hindered the process of getting more events like it off the ground.
“At that time it was still coming off of Covid, the entire concert and entertainment world was still very, very wonky,” said Shea.
The Down & Dirty Country Music Festival is now set for October 14 and 15 at GoMart Ballpark, which Shea said is an opportunity everyone had been on board to get launched.
“When I was introduced to Allen with Airstream Ventures, I mean that was the quickest yes of all time, and I was like ‘oh my gosh, that’s small-world awesome,’ that it’s like the two of us, plus the city, plus Tim Brady, plus everyone really, you know, had kind of been visualizing this and boom, in one meeting we were all talking about it and on the same page right away,” Shea said.
He said along with finding music artists to perform, making tickets affordable was the main priority, and something he plans to continue to do as more potential music events make their way to the stadium.
Goodwin added this announcement comes off the heels of another huge event which recently took place at the stadium.
“You know, you just got off a great week with the Savannah Bananas, largest crowd in the history of the stadium,” said Goodwin.
Shea said there have been stadiums across the country that have not seen the crowds GoMart has already seen this year and they haven’t even had their first game yet.
The home opener for the Dirty Birds will take place on May 9.
A 10-year lease agreement between the city and Dirty Birds is expected to be discussed during Monday evening’s city council meeting.
The agreement includes payments from the team to the city regarding tickets and merchandise sales, and it will help generate more events to the ballpark.