BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A country music singer who in just six years on the charts has had nine gold and platinum singles is the first headliner announced for Musikfest 2025.
Riley Green, best known for his triple-platinum single "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" and platinum hits "There Was This Girl" "Different Round Here," will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, ArtsQuest revealed Monday.
Tickets, at $35 to $125 — $249 for Steel Terrace which includes dinner, drinks and dessert at private tables — are available and will go on sale Tuesday for ArtsQuest members and to the public at 10 a.m. Friday at the ArtsQuest Center box office at 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, at www.musikfest.org and 610-332-3378.
For its 42nd year, Musikfest will run Aug. 1–10, with a preview night on July 31.
It is second-earliest announcement ever for Musikfest's first headliner.
Green was an opening act for Brad Paisley at Musikfest in 2019, and performed a duet with Paisley.
Green just released his third album, "Don't Mind If I Do," on Oct. 18. It has hit No. 8 on the Billboard Country albums chart, and debuted at No. 25 on the overall albums chart.
Its title track, featuring Ella Langley, last week was No. 1 on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart.
The concert announcement comes just two days later than the earliest ever, the Nov. 9, 2018, announcement of Train and Goo Goo Dolls.
This year's announcement comes more than two weeks earlier than the first 2024 headliner was announced on Nov. 27, 2023, and 24 days before it was announced Dec. 5, 2022.
It gives buyers plenty of time to buy tickets for holiday gifts.
Quick rise to the top
Green self-released his debut EP, "Outlaws Like Us," in 2017 and it surprisingly hit No. 5 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart with the gold hit "Bury Me in Dixie."
A second EP, 2018's "Riley Green," contained the gold hit "When She Comes Home Tonight."
Green's major-label debut album, 2019's "Different 'Round Here," just missed the Top 10 on the Country Albums chart and sold gold with the hits "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" and "There Was This Girl."
A 2021 EP, "Behind the Bar," produced another gold hit, "If It Wasn't for Trucks," and he followed that with another gold hit, "Hell of a Way to Go."
In 2022, he was featured on Thomas Rhett's platinum No. 1 country hit "Half of Me"
Green's sophomore album "Ain't My Last Rodeo" in 2023 included the platinum hit "Different 'Round Here" (with Luke Combs), which peaked at No. 2.
He also was featured on Ella Langley's platinum hit "You Look Like You Love Me," released this past August.
Monda's announcement already matches the number of country acts that headlined Musikfest last year, when Old Dominion was the only country headliner at the 11-day festival.
Musikfest said 1,029,417 people attended the festival in 2024, when it also was stretched to 11 days with a preview night.
The festival featured more than 500 free performances across 16 stages on Bethlehem's North Side and the SteelStacks campus in South Bethlehem.
A record 1,330,000 people attended Musikfest in 2023.
