Reba McEntire, Zac Brown Band to Headline Country to Country 2017

The first wave of performers for the 2017 Country to Country festival has been announced, with Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire and Zac Brown Band scheduled to headline the annual country music gathering in Europe. Country to Country is set for March 10th to 12th with shows taking place simultaneously in London, Dublin and Glasgow.

Also on the bill are Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Darius Rucker, Hunter Hayes, Chris Young, Jennifer Nettles, Cam, Dan + Shay and Marty Stuart. Artists will move between the cities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, rotating through the participating performers at London’s O2 Arena, Glasgow’s Clyde Auditorium and Dublin’s 3Arena.

The 2016 edition of Country to Country featured headliners Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Eric Church, with an all-star supporting cast including Chris Stapleton, Sam Hunt, Kacey Musgraves, Dwight Yoakam, Little Big Town and Thomas Rhett.

Beyond the occasional superstar, country music hasn’t had much traction outside North America in recent years. But festivals like Country to Country are helping to change that, bringing stars as well as still virtually unknown artists to enthusiastic audiences who can’t follow them from state to state on their home turf. Getting exposure to the European audiences has been a boon for Kip Moore, who now has a solid touring across the Atlantic and felt that he’d really connected with fans.

“When people would come up to me in bars, they were always talking about my lyrics,” he told Rolling Stone Country. “I thought it was very interesting that over there, they really made a connection with the passion and the lyrics. They’d start talking to me about them and telling me what they think they meant. They appreciated the singer-songwriter side of things.”

Tickets for Country to Country are currently on sale, with the Glasgow events nearly sold out. Weekend passes for the London shows start at £134 ($166 USD).