Boxoffice Insider: Kacey Musgraves’ 2019 Tour Hints At Looming Next-Level Success

Kacey Musgraves is set to take the next step as a concert touring artist in 2022 when she launches her first ever arena tour. The “Star-Crossed: Unveiled” trek, currently booked in 15 North American cities beginning in January, will kick off more than two years after her 2019 tour ended with a sold-out arena concert, the only one included in her box office history as a headliner.

Her previous tour, named the “Oh, What a World Tour,” wrapped with a sold-out performance at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Oct. 25, 2019, scoring a sold-ticket tally of 16,753. It was the highest attendance recorded on the tour and, indeed, in her entire touring history as a headliner – not surprising, being the only arena date in the mix. Yet the same tour also produced her 17 best-attended headlining concert engagements of all-time, most of them occurring during the summer or fall after the tour was extended with a second North American leg – and after she took home Album of the Year for her fourth studio album, 2018’s Golden Hour, at the Grammys in February 2019.

Among just the top 10 engagements with the highest attendance totals, four of them had arena-sized sales figures with sold-ticket counts higher than 10,000, while two landed just under the 10,000-ticket threshold. Even though the Nashville arena heads up the top 10 list, the venue with the second-highest ticket total had only 1,338 less than the arena show.

Musgraves played two nights at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas, an 8,000-seat outdoor venue in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, with 15,415 tickets sold for both shows, Oct. 10-11. It was the highest attendance reported at the venue that year, topping the second-ranked concert headliner by almost 6,000 tickets.

Two more venues on the 2019 tour moved more than 10,000 tickets during a two-show run. The first was the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, which recorded 11,749 sold seats for performances on Aug. 23 and 25. Then, on Oct. 15 and 16, she played for two sellout crowds at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, amassing an 11,602-ticket total.

The fifth highest was 9,511 tickets at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo. After the Nashville arena show, it recorded the second-highest number of sold seats for a single performance in her box office history. Held on June 26, the Denver-area concert logged a box office take of $493,806.

Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium has the only four-night engagement included in Musgraves’ top 10, with 9,038 total fans attending concerts Feb. 27-28 and March 1-2, 2019, while a single performance at Kansas City’s Starlight Theatre drew 7,200 attendees on Sept. 4.

The eighth-highest number of sold seats was recorded at her only stadium show as a headliner – a Sept. 20 concert with 7,139 tickets sold at Volvo Car Stadium in Charleston, S.C. Produced by Live Nation, the concert featured an opening set by singer Weyes Blood. The tennis venue, currently under renovation, is set to reopen in 2022 as CreditOne Stadium with capacity increased from 7,000 to 11,000.

Finally, her top 10 attendance counts include outdoor shows at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center in Vienna, Va. and Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C. Wolf Trap moved 6,960 tickets on Sept. 7, 2019, and the Cary shed sold 6,849 exactly one week later.

Musgraves’ “Oh, What a World Tour,” supporting her 2018 album which ultimately produced a total of four Grammy wins, marked her first headlining trek since 2016 when she toured with her “Country & Western Rhinestone Revue.” That tour kicked off with a fall 2015 European leg that included one of her highest-profile performances, a Nov. 18 event at London’s Royal Albert Hall where she drew a crowd of 3,876.

Following the “Country & Western Rhinestone Revue,” she closed out 2016 with a string of headlining shows behind the debut of her album A Very Kacey Christmas, released earlier that fall. s