Since the Acrisure Amphitheater officially started taking shape in downtown Grand Rapids, speculation about who would play there first has run wild for the better part of a year. Machine Gun Kelly (mgk) and Wiz Khalifa were the first artists announced for the amphitheater. Still, Lionel Richie will kick off the inaugural seasonwith openers The War and Treaty and Brian Vander Ark.
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Now, 14 shows, ranging from music to comedy, have been announced, and people are hungry for more. So much so that the official Acrisure Amphitheater Facebook page made a simple post asking what everyone’s “Dream artist to see at The Amp” would be, and it garnered over 800 comments.
Last year, we made a list of artists people would like to see, but this is a much larger sample , so we’re doing it again. We’ve broken down all the comments to find out which artists are truly the most in demand here in West Michigan.
Billy Strings Dominates The Comments
By a long shot, the most requested artist is Michigan’s very own Billy Strings, with ~175 commenters requesting his appearance and loads of people liking those comments. He recently performed two sold-out shows at the Van Andel Arena, with fans camping outside and selling bootleg merchandise.
The fanfare surrounding his booking would be insanity, with people already requesting to book multiple nights. Plus, it just makes sense to book a Michigan native at the newest venue in West Michigan.
Top 15 Requested Artists
From there, the following popular artists are mainly jam bands or EDM artists. Keep in mind that these are dream artists, and some may be “too popular’ to play at the 12,000-person-capacity amphitheater, but that doesn’t stop people from wanting them anyways…