On Saturday night, Concert for Carolina brought together more than 82,000 people at The Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina to watch a star-studded evening of music to raise money to support Hurricane Helene victims in Western North Carolina. The show broke the record for the largest attendance of a concert in the venue. Additionally, the Veeps livestream garnered 7.1 million total views, which came from across all 50 U.S. states and 30 different countries. The concert raised over $24.5 million dollars and country music star Luke Combs is calling the Concert for Carolina show the proudest moment of his career.
The event came together at a record pace after Combs saw the devastation after Hurricane Helene in his home state. Combs reached out to his manager and Eric Church to help organize the event in three weeks. Luke and Eric started by calling everyone in their phones to get volunteers, donations and arrange musical performances for the massive event. One of the first calls was to Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper who immediately donated the stadium for use along with all proceeds from inside the venue.
Saturday started off with a press conference with David and Nicole Tapper, Luke Combs, Eric Church, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Explore Asheville Tourism Board Representative Vic Isley. The panel spoke about the devastation of the area and also shared heartfelt memories of growing up in the mountains of the Tar Heel state. Stories of bravery and heroism about people from the affected areas helped paint the picture of how the communities were coming together to help re-build. But it was also clear that help and funding would be needed for many months to come.
Caleb Pressley and Marty Smith hosted the concert at Bank of America Stadium. In addition to Combs and Church, Billy Strings, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Bailey Zimmerman, The Avett Brothers, Scotty McCreery, Chase Rice and Parmalee and more took the stage to raise funds for those affected by Hurricane Helene.
At 5:15PM when Scotty McCreery, Chase Rice and Parmalee were slated to take the stage as Songwriters for Carolina, there was an evacuation due to lightning in the area at 5:15. Fans waited in the concourse for an all clear.
Just before 7PM, Eric Church started the show with “Hallelujah”. The singer said, “I’ve never played a show closer to my heart.”
After Church, virtuosic guitarist Billy Strings was up next. From the revolving center stage, he paid tribute to North Carolina native Doc Watson.
Eric Church took the stage for his full performance with just an acoustic guitar in hand. He told the crowd that his CHIEF CARES foundation would be building 100 homes for families who were displaced by the hurricane as a starting point and hoping to expand that into also helping businesses rebuild in the communities as well.
Eric played his hits like “Talladega, “Smoke A Little Smoke” and “Springsteen” in addition to a round robin sing along of cover songs that he used to play in bars early in his career. His cover songs included “Sweet Caroline,” Sittin’ On The Dock of The Bay,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Piano Man” and “Smoky Mountain Rain” among others.
Church had a lot of surprises for the audience during his set that included a performance with Sheryl Crow to sing “Picture.” Crow went on two perform two of her hits solo as well for the crowd including “Everyday Is A Winding Road.”
Keith Urban also joined Eric for a performance of “Raise ‘Em Up” along with a few of his own solo songs “Blue Ain’t Your Color” and “Wasted Time.” Keith wife, actress Nicole Kidman also surprised the crowd with Eric to wish Keith a happy birthday and sing to him with crowd participation.
Church closed out his performance singing “Darkest Hour,” his newest song release that he signed over all the proceeds to the State of North Carolina for continued financial support.
Chase Rice and Parmalee took the stage together to perform several of their song. Rice wore a “Craig Town Strong” with camo overalls and sang “Haw River” and “Carolina Can.” Parmalee noted that it was the biggest crowd they had ever played for and sang “Just The Way” and “Carolina” in an acoustic format.
In the middle of the show, hosts Caleb Pressley and Marty Smith announced that Dolly Parton had sent a letter to be read out loud to the crowd where she pledged $1 million to the causes in North Carolina from her Bezos Fund money.
At 10:15 PM James Taylor took to the rotating stage and wowed the crowd. He kicked off with “Country Road” and “Something in the Way She Moves.” Everyone in the stadium had chills as the iconic singer sang “Fire and Rain.” Taylor also played a Carole King cover of “You’ve Got A Friend” and of course the crowd pleasing “Carolina in My Mind.” James was joined on stage with two members of Luke Comb’s band and also his son on backing vocals.
Scotty McCeery played between headlining sets and brought the audience to their feet for “Carolina To Me” and a singalong to his chart topping hit “Five More Minutes.”
Luke Combs took the stage at around 11:45 pm and performed 15 songs for the sold out crowd. His songs included his smash hits, “Better Together,” “The Kind of Love We Make,” When It Rains It Pours,” and “Fast Car.” Bailey Zimmerman also joined Luke on stage to perform “Must’ve Never Met You.” Combs mentioned that Bailey was the first person who reached out after the hurricane to find out how he could help.
Luke also brought out one of his personal favorite bands growing up The Avett Brothers. The group canceled one of their arena headlining dates to participate in Concert for Carolina. The Avetts did a cover to tribute Toby Keith “As Good As I Once Was” to start their performance and closed with “We Are Loved.”
Another special moment in the night was when Luke introduced Wesko to the audience to perform his song “Helene.” Combs talked about scrolling through TikTok and seeing the devastation in the western part of the state and he said that every video was set to this song so de decided to reach out and ask Wesko to be part of the show.
For the encore, Luke brought out Eric to perform “Does to Me” together for the first time live. The show ended with all the performers on stage with Combs and Church singing “Carolina.”
Overall it was a night that the crowd will never forget with once in a lifetime moments of coming together for a good cause.