Las Vegas rock band Imagine Dragons will headline the much rumored MLB All-Star Game concert on July 12 at TCF Bank Stadium to help kick off a week of festivities, according to Major League Baseball’s website.
The Grammy-winning quartet, which sold out the Xcel Energy Center in March, will be joined by local hip-hop group Atmosphere for the free show.
Fans can request up to four free tickets starting at 10 a.m. Thursday on the MLB’s website, here. There are a limited number of tickets available and the Pioneer Press says that although TCF Bank Stadium can hold roughly 60,000 fans, only 29,000 people will be allowed into the event.
All tickets are general admission – gates to the stadium will open at 5:30 p.m., with the show starting at 7:30 p.m., Star Tribune says.
This free show is part of five days of festivities around the All-Star Game. Other events have fans shelling out hundreds of dollars for tickets – ticket packages available to Twins season ticket holders range from $400 to $1,400, MPR News notes.
“It’s not fair, it should be for the fans,” Tammy Sly, a Minneapolis resident, told MPR. “We paid for this stadium as taxpayers and we should get to go to the game.”
The free concert is to thank local fans, MLB’s Executive Vice President of Business Tim Brosnan told the Pioneer Press. This will be the fourth free All-Star week concert, following Mariah Carey in 2013, Sheryl Crow in 2009 and Bon Jovi in 2008.
The Star Tribune first reported that Imagine Dragons would be headlining the free show back in May, quoting a MLB charity website that spilled the beans on who the headliner was, but then the charity site removed the information.
The only major concert previously held at TCF Bank Stadium was the rain-drenched show by U2 in 2011, which attracted more than 58,000 fans.
Imagine Dragons has released just one album, double-platinum “Night Visions,” but they’ve had a lot of success. The Las Vegas quartet’s single “Radioactive” spent a record-breaking 87 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, won a best rock performance Grammy and topped 7 million in sales.
Atmosphere recently released its eighth studio album, “Southsiders,” which is a shout-out to their native south Minneapolis neighborhood. Atmosphere’s rapper Sean “Slug” Daley and producer Anthony “Ant” Davis are co-founders of the Minneapolis record label Rhymesayers Entertainment, according to the group’s website.
