GABBY BARRETT
Photo by Jess Williams
The Vidalia Onion Festival Committee announces the headliner for the Saturday Night Concert is Warner Music Nashville’s Gabby Barrett. Crowned the ACM New Female Artist of the Year, Barrett has three Billboard Music Awards, iHeartRadioMusic Award, and the 2021 CMT Music Award’s top honor for Female Video of the Year (“The Good Ones”). Reigning atop the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for a record-breaking 27 weeks, “I Hope” was also the first debut single by a solo female artist to top the Country radio charts since 2017 and made her the youngest artist with a #1 debut at Country radio in over two decades. Alongside her 3x PLATINUM three-week #1 single, “The Good Ones” and latest single “Pick Me Up,” the powerhouse artist is returning to the road this summer, set for headline shows, fairs and festivals.
Openers for the Saturday Night Concert include Nate Smith, Drew Green and Josh Courson. Featuring a mix of gritty backwoods soul, rock ‘n’ roll swagger and velvet-thunder vocals, Nate Smith’s personal journey inspired him to be a beacon of country-music hope, an inspirational mission he puts front-and-center. After losing everything he and his family owned in the devastating Camp Fire in Paradise, California, Nate used music for comfort and in 2019, Nate released his biggest song to date, “Wildfire,” and landed a publishing deal with Sony ATV. Since then, he’s released “Sleeve” and “Under My Skin,” which has amassed over 70 million on-demand streams to date. The singer was named a Spotify Hot Country Artist to Watch for 2021 – an accurate prediction as he rounded out the year with a record deal with Sony Music Nashville and two new songs: “Raised Up” and the viral TikTok hit “I Don’t Wanna Go To Heaven.” The powerhouse vocalist is now making waves with his latest single, "Whiskey On You," which just hit number 1 on country radio.
Drew Green, a Tennessee native has been thriving as one of Music Row’s most prolific songwriters. Now, the singer is poised for an equally fruitful artist career. With his debut track, "Little More Be Alright," Green counts the blessings of his well-earned success. Lyrically, it’s a prayer of sorts — he gives thanks for what he has, while acknowledging that there’s always room for more when it comes to time spent with loved ones.
Josh Courson is an award winning country music singer/songwriter, signed to Nashville's Vista 22 Entertainment. Josh has released multiple hits including "Here for the Beer," which spent 4 weeks at #1 on Atlanta's FM 96.5 The Bull Backyard Country. Josh's energetic style and ability to blend everything from Southern Rock to Old School Rock & Roll into his Country sound, makes him a must see act.
Vidalia Onion Festival 2023 Chairman Jake Cleghorn stated, “I am glad for the level of talent and the lengthening of the festival to add value to the event. This year will have more of a music festival atmosphere and we wanted to bring the Street Dance back downtown. Having all the music in one venue makes it easier to manage and saves time and money on set up costs. Changes to the schedule include moving the Local Entertainment and Movie Under the Stars to Tuesday, April 18th; moving the Street Dance to Thursday, April 20th, and adding a Friday Night Concert and a Sunday Night Christian Concert.
Dylan Scott and Mitchell Tenpenny will co-headline the Friday Night Concert. Curb Records recording artist Dylan Scott is an old-soul songwriter and a powerful vocalist with a deep, unmistakable drawl. The multi-Platinum singer has notched two No. 1 singles at radio, “My Girl” and “Nobody”, as well as a Top 5 hit “Hooked.” Following his first career nomination for “Best New Country Artist” at the all-genre iHeartRadio Music Awards and a coveted spot among Country Radio Seminar’s New Faces of Country Music, his Platinum-certified ode to his wife, “Nobody,” earned him a 2021 CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year. Livin’ My Best Life, the highly-anticipated follow-up to his chart-topping Nothing To Do Town EP, was released in summer 2022, and features fiery lead single “New Truck” and viral TikTok ballad “Can’t Have Mine (Find You A Girl).”
Mitchell Tenpenny is a multi-faceted entertainer: singer, songwriter, producer and performer who has worked tirelessly to build and support his fan base with a steady stream of new music. He was recently recognized for surpassing the One Billion streams threshold, currently 1.5 Billion; his first triple-platinum plaque for break-out debut single “Drunk Me”; a Gold plaque for his debut album Telling All My Secrets and a Gold plaque for current smash “Truth About You”. He has since received nominations from the Academy of Country Music and the CMT Awards. Clayton Hackle, a favorite at past onion festivals, will be returning as the Friday Night Concert opener.
On Thursday night at the Street Dance, the feature band, The Geek Squad, is a 9-piece party band that was a favorite at last year’s festival covering music from every era along with retro rock/pop to today's current chart-toppers. Fireworks will be displayed after the Street Dance on Thursday night and all the evening events will be held in downtown at the Ronnie A. Dixon City Park. Sunday’s Christian concert features American Gospel artist Byron Cage and Christian Contemporary artist Austin French.
A limited number of Early Bird tickets are now available for $40 and a combination ticket for both Friday and Saturday concerts will be only $70. Find the ticket links VidaliaOnionFestival.com and on the festival Facebook page or go directly to the ticket site: https://www.eventeny.com/events/2023-vidalia-onion-festival-4884/?series=1344
Mayor Roper added "I am pleased to hear the Vidalia Onion Festival Committee has plans to bring the majority of the events for this year’s festival back downtown. Certainly, there are times where other areas of our community must be utilized to host the scheduled events from year-to-year, but any time we can bring thousands of people to the heart of our downtown, we want to do it. This will be great for our business community, particularly our retail and restaurant owners and also a great way to utilize Ronnie A. Dixon City Park. I would like to further thank the festival committee for their continued work to ensure our community has one of the best festivals in the entire state of Georgia, each and every year."
