Saturday’s Music to Benefit Music fundraising concert at the Hudsonville event center is attracting lots of attention, thanks in great part to a scramble for eighth-row tix to see Swift in Detroit.
Grammy-Nominated Singer-Songwriter: John Fullbright plays Hudsonville on Saturday night. (Photo/Vicki Farmer)
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The numbers are big and more than impressive.
Since Hudsonville’s Pinnacle Center hosted its first concert to benefit area music education programs in 2001, it has raised more than $450,000 for instruments, music gear and instructional materials.
So it’s no surprise that this year’s Music to Benefit Music fundraiser taking place at The Pinnacle Center on Saturday would have a really big attraction – even beyond the headlining performance by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter John Fullbright.
Sponsored by the nonprofit Music to Benefit Music founded by the Pinnacle Center’s Bill Worst, the 2023 event boasts a raffle unlike any other. The grand prize? Two eighth-row center seats to pop star Taylor Swift’s June 10 concert at Detroit’s Ford Field.
In-Demand Album, In-Demand Concert: Taylor Swift’s tour hits Detroit in June.
Worst said the raffle for the ridiculously hard-to-get tickets – for which Swift’s on-sale stirred a major Ticketmaster controversy – has generated huge interest, with more than $10,000 in sales thus far for the $100 raffle tickets.
“The Taylor Swift raffle is the biggest,” said Worst, noting that Saturday’s benefit also boasts a raffle for a $1,000 Visa gift card along with a host of wide-ranging auction items valued at between $300 and $1,000.
“These (Taylor Swift concert) tickets are currently going for big money in the secondary market.”
That’s an understatement: At StubHub, a pair of tickets for the June 10 Detroit show range from a low of $493 for upper level seats to as much as $12,600 for the first row.
Those interested in purchasing raffle tickets for the Taylor Swift concert can call The Pinnacle Center at 616-662-3330.
Of course, Worst is also pumped up about this year’s featured entertainer, the Oklahoma-born Fullbright, who won ASCAP Foundation’s 2012 Harold Adamson Lyric Award and who released his most recent album, “The Liar,” in 2022.
Fullbright (Photo/Vicki Farmer)
“I like the singer-songwriter format and I have followed his career since he first burst on the scene,” Worst said. “His lyrical storytelling is on par with the best – Jackson Browne, etc.”
Fullbright, 34, also won the 2014 Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame “Rising Star Award” in 2014 and was nominated for best Americana album at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
With 240 to 280 people expected to attend, Saturday’s event begins with a dinner and auction at 6 p.m., followed by Fullbright’s performance at 8 p.m. Tickets are $62.50 per person; call 616-481-8183 for reservations.
Proceeds from this year’s benefit will support music programs in Hudsonville, Jenison, Byron Center, Hamilton and Ottawa-area school districts.
“It’s nice to be back in the swing after the COVID shutdown,” Worst said, “and to get a Grammy-nominated artist like John Fullbright.”
VIDEO: John Fullbright, “Social Skills” (Live rendition of a song from “The Liar”)
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