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Sweetland has announced a surprise final addition to its 2023 concert lineup.

Sweetland Amphitheatre announced on Wednesday that superstar rapper Nelly will perform on Aug. 26. Tickets for the event will go on sale Friday, July 7.

The hip-hop, rap artist, is known for “Hot in Herre,” “Dilemma” and “Air Force Ones.” 

Sweetland General Manger Brent Gibbs said the Nelly concert will be the final addition to the 2023 Sweetland concert season, which will close out with Blues Traveler on Oct. 20.

Gibbs said Sweetland has been pursuing and negotiating to bring Nelly to LaGrange for years, even before he took over as GM.

“He had been an artist that Sweetland has pursued across multiple years. We’re super excited to have someone like him come and perform at Sweetland,” Gibbs said.

Bringing Nelly or any big artist to LaGrange was no easy feat, especially with being so close to bigger venues in Atlanta. 

“It took multiple offers, wrangling and negations with other parties,” Gibbs said, explaining that they were able to successfully negotiate with another area promoter in Atlanta to exempt them from a radius clause.

Larger artists will often have clauses in their contracts where they cannot perform within a certain number of miles. With Atlanta frequently being a regular concert stop for stars, it sometimes prevents them from coming to LaGrange.

Gibbs said he believes Neely is Sweetland’s first rap artist. The venue will also host Black Violin on Oct. 13, who he said perform a fusion of hip hop and classical music.

“This will be the end of announcements we have for this year, the 2023 season. We hope that the community is encouraged and this surprise concert is a thank you to all of our supporters,” Gibbs said. “We hope that this addition is just going to be something that gets them excited about living in LaGrange and having Sweetland as a community live performance asset.”

Gibbs said Sweetland is already actively working on the 2024 concert season and has two confirmed concerts. Announcements for those shows are expected around the end of the year or early next year.