By Josh Green, NBC17
What will Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp have in common? As of Tuesday night, they will have all played in downtown Durham.
The three legends will appear at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park Tuesday in the first major concert in downtown Durham’s baseball stadium.
“I think in this environment — you have to look for new ways to do things,” Mike Birling, general manager of the Durham Bulls, said. “We have baseball games, but you have to branch out and find different ways to make some money.”
Birling says Jam Productions selected the DBAP and about 20 minor league parks as venues this year.
“Together, we’ve got something going on [in] downtown Durham,” Linda Charlton, director of marketing for the Durham Performing Arts Center, which is next door to the park, said. “Lots of those big concerts require a minimum of 2,500 seats and there just hasn’t been a venue in this area to do that before.”
With 2,800 seats, Charlton says nearly every show at DPAC sold out last year, including Willie Nelson and John Legend.
The Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that 6.04 million visitors came to the city last year; and that of the $678.6 million spent in Durham, about 17 percent or $116.7 million was for entertainment.
The DPAC’s Broadway Series is helping add numbers this coming year.
“Last year, we had 5,000 season ticket holders before they even saw the building,” Charlton said. “To be at almost 9,000 right now — it just says the demand’s here for these really big shows.”
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