OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Get ready for a musical event like none ever seen in the Ocala area: Rock the Country.
Similar to Luke Bryan‘s Farm Tour concerts, promoters chose seven small towns for seven massive shows featuring Kid Rock and Jason Aldean. Unlike Bryan’s Farm Tour, each concert is a two-day event with rotating supporting artists. For Ocala, those artists are Florida-natives Lynyrd Skynyrd plus area favorites Brantley Gilbert, Travis Tritt and Colt Ford along with newcomers Elvie Shane, Warren Zeiders, Gavin Adcock and Sadie Bass, who was a 2022 contestant on The Voice.
Headliner Kid Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, said in an announcement that Rock the Country is for everyone who makes this country run and loves America. “Nobody knows how to party like Small Town America!”
Aldean, who has close ties to Ocala through family and his early days as a performer at the now defunct Stillwaters Saloon, hinted that something big was coming to Ocala while backstage with country radio representatives at his Jacksonville concert on October 28.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 17, at 10 a.m. with a Thursday pre-sale for which you must register. General admission will be available, as well as VIP and elevated reserved seating.
The festival also offers both primitive and RV camping.
Rock the Country kicks off in April 2024. If you want to take a long road trip and follow the tour, the seven locations and dates of Rock the Country are as follows:
- Gonzales, LA – April 5 & 6 at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center
- Ashland, KY – April 19 & 20 at Boyd County Fairgrounds
- Rome, GA – May 10 & 11 at Kingston Downs
- Ocala, FL – June 7 & 8 at Majestic Oaks Ocala
- Mobile, AL – June 21 & 22 at The Grounds
- Poplar Bluff, MO – June 28 & 29 at Brick’s Offroad Parks
- Anderson, SC – July 26 & 27 at Anderson Sports and Entertainment Center
“Rock the Country aims to bring the excitement and energy of a large-scale music festival to small towns across the country,” Shane Quick, President of Touring and Strategic Expansion, LiveCo, said in a press release. “With seven big shows in seven different towns, this event promises to be an experience like never before. Fans can expect a weekend filled with incredible performances, great food, and a sense of community that only small towns can offer.”
Locally, both officials and fans are excited. “Marion County is thrilled to host the Rock the Country Festival in our community this June!” said Michelle Stone, Chairman, Marion County Board of County Commissioners in a press release. “This traveling event will be unlike anything our county has ever experienced, and we can’t wait to see you there!”
The concert announcement was posted on our sister radio stations’ Facebook pages and garnered immediate attention. Wind-FM fan Toni Hall Batchelder was the first to post the concert poster on the station’s Facebook page asking, “Did you see this?” While the post made on K-Country’s Facebook page garnered more than a thousand likes, 700 comments, and nearly 2,000 shares in less than 24 hours. Melissa Reed Bellamy posted under the concert poster on K-Country’s Facebook page, “Omg!!!! So excited!!! Who wants to go? I do!!!!”
For more information on this event click here.