Zach Bryan broke the record for the largest ticketed concert audience in U.S. history as he became the first artist to perform at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
According to the show’s promoter AEG Presents, the 29-year-old’s concert on Saturday, September 27, drew an official attendance of 112,408.
The record was previously held by another country artist, George Strait, who performed to 110,905 people in Texas last year. Before that, it was held for several decades by the Grateful Dead after they played to 107,019 people in New Jersey in 1977.
There have been concerts in the U.S. that have attracted larger audiences, such as a performance by the New York Philharmonic in Central Park in 1986 that drew an estimated crowd of 800,000, and Live 8 in Philadelphia in 2005, which drew around a million, but they were free and unticketed.
Michigan Stadium is the largest stadium in the United States and is home to the University of Michigan’s college football team. It is known as “The Big House”.
Bryan was joined by special guest John Mayer and was supported by Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen and Joshua Slone.
Variety reports that the show also set a new record for merchandise sales in a single night by bringing in $5 million.
Earlier this year, Bryan completed a pair of music deals reportedly worth a total of $350 million.
The “Something in the Orange” singer sold his publishing catalog to Merrit Group while also signing a major new contract with his label, Warner Records.
In May, he put some of that money to use by purchasing the historic former Saint Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell, Massachusetts so that it can be transformed into the Jack Kerouac Center.
The church was where the On The Road author served as an altar boy while a child and where mourners gathered for his 1969 funeral mass. It had long been earmarked as the site of a cultural center dedicated to his work, but funds were lacking until Bryan stepped in.
The purchase of the church building and site cost around $3.4 million, according to local newspaper Lowell Sun.
In a statement, Sylvia Cunha of the Jack Kerouac Estate said: “We’ve been working on this deal with Zach and his team for several months. Zach reached out in October, and right from the start, it was clear he shared our passion for honoring Jack’s legacy while also creating a dynamic, creative space.”
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