One of country music’s biggest stars got a facelift this weekend (and no, I’m not talking about Dolly Parton).
The Grand Ole Opry unveiled a new stage and redesigned set on Saturday night, showing off over $4 million in upgrades made to the legendary Opry house.
The new stage marked the Opry’s first major set change in over 20 years, since the show’s 75th anniversary back in 2000.
The newly-redesigned set includes an upgrade to the stage’s iconic barn, featuring new lighting elements and upgraded visual capabilities, along with a new video wall and new lighted set pieces for the band and on both sides of the stage. The sound system in the iconic venue was also upgraded, and new halo lighting was added to the legendary “circle” where artists step up to perform.
Said Opry executive producer Dan Rogers on the updated look for the iconic stage:
“These are giant leaps for the Opry as we plan to welcome more fans than ever before this year and look toward our milestone 100th year just two years away.”
The new set’s inaugural show featured performances from Jon Pardi, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, Mark Wills, Don Schlitz, War & Treaty and Kat & Alex, after kicking off with an all-star opening of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” to unveil the new stage.
You can watch the entire live broadcast of last night’s show here: