First Outdoor Concerts Happening at MSU in 38 Years

When the Grammy-winning band Imagine Dragons plays in Montana State University’s Bobcat Stadium on July 26, the uber-popular act will be making history in a couple of ways. Not only is it the first time that the Las Vegas-based group has played Bozeman, but it is also the first time in a generation that an MSU venue has hosted a non-student outdoor concert, according to Duane Morris, MSU’s director of event services.

And that show isn’t the only outdoor concert MSU has scheduled this summer. MSU is also partnering with area organizers to bring the inaugural Wildlands Festival, a fundraiser for Montana’s wild and open spaces featuring Robert Earl Keen and Lukas Nelson and his band Promise of the Real, to the Romney Oval on Aug. 10. It is the first concert in the history of the university to be held in the oval, Morris said.

“We are so excited about this summer,” Morris said. “(Outdoor concerts are) something we have wanted to do for a while, and we’ve worked hard to bring two quality concerts to Bozeman.”

The last outdoor concert held at MSU was in the summer of 1980 featuring Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Live Wire Choir and John Colter Band with Willow. Plenty of big name acts have performed at Montana State University in the last 38 years – Elton John, Tom Petty and Brad Paisley, just to mention a few – but all performed in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. And while the stadium has hosted hundreds of football games, movies and events and has undergone several expansions over those years, concerts have been absent until this summer.

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