Write this down: George Strait announces concert at Clemson football stadium

After 26 years, Clemson is bringing concerts back to its football stadium.

And the first headliner is a familiar face.

Country music star George Strait announced Friday he will hold a concert in Memorial Stadium on Saturday, May 2, 2026. It will be the first concert in the “Death Valley Nights” series Clemson athletics announced earlier this fall, intended to bring additional revenue in for the department in the revenue sharing era.

Strait has a connection to the university: In 1999, he brought his popular George Strait Country Music Festival to Memorial Stadium. The sellout event also featured Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and The Chicks.

But Clemson — which also hosted major acts including The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Elton John and Billy Joel in the 1980s and ’90s — went away from football stadium concerts and surprisingly hadn’t hosted a single one since 1999.

Strait and Clemson had teased his concert appearance earlier this week on social media as one that was “26 years in the making.”

Strait, nicknamed “The King of Country,” is one of the best-selling music artists of all time and is known for country hits including “Check Yes or No,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” “Give It Away” and “Write This Down.”

Strait, 73, will be joined by country music singers Cody Johnson and Wyatt Flores. Fans can sign up now to get a special link for purchasing “presale” tickets (which will go on sale Oct. 27). Tickets will be available to the general public on Oct. 31.

How George Strait concert fits into Clemson strategy

Clemson held a successful non-football event at Memorial Stadium back in April when the Savannah Bananas (a popular traveling baseball/entertainment team) converted the football field into a baseball field and played a nationally televised game on ESPN, featuring the team running down The Hill with Dabo Swinney.

Clemson athletic director Graham Neff discussed the concert during his regular athletics update to the university board of trustees at their fall meeting Friday and said bringing Strait to Clemson is a big win for the university.

“We’re committed to bringing the biggest, world-class events to our facilities and our community and our student body here,” said Neff, who’s been talking about bringing concerts and events back to Clemson’s football stadium for years.

Memorial Stadium’s official capacity is 81,500 people, but Neff said the football stadium will be able to seat an additional 8,500 people (for a total of about 90,000) because of a unique seating configuration.

Strait and other musicians will perform “in the round” at Death Valley, which is slang in music and theater for when an artist performs on a circular stage in the middle of a venue, from a centralized location everyone can see.

At Memorial Stadium, that central location will be the 50-yard line. And it means fans will be able to watch Strait perform from additional space on field level.

“We’re excited to kick off this next era of how we activate within the community, our stadiums, certainly drive revenue and bring world-class events to our community and university,” Neff said. “George Strait will start that this upcoming May.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 10:23 AM.

Chapel Fowler

The State

Chapel Fowler, the NSMA’s 2024 South Carolina Sportswriter of the Year, has covered Clemson football and other topics for The State since summer 2022. His work’s also been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the South Carolina Press Association and the North Carolina Press Association. He’s a Denver, N.C., native, a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and a pickup basketball enthusiast. Support my work with a digital subscription