Nashville’s music venue The Pinnacle is set to open in 2025. What you should know
Mike DuCharme, vice president of AEG Presents, discusses how the Pinnacle’s February 2025 opening with Americana, country, EDM and hip-hop shows will impact Nashville’s evolving “musical ecosystem and landscape.”
The Pinnacle is scheduled to open in February and will be the second 5,000-seat music venue on the one-mile stretch northeast from the Ascend Amphitheater to the concert hall site in the new Nashville Yards complex.
Venue partner and promoter AEG Presents: Mike DuCharme spoke to The Tennessean about the project.
He is vice president of the AEG Live regional office in Nashville. He has been based in the Music City for half a decade, having traveled throughout the Midwest and West of America and observed the sustained growth of live music at venues such as the Mission Ballroom in Denver and the Midland Theater in Kansas City. He also helped develop the “Red Dirt” Born and Raised Festival in the Tulsa suburbs.
When asked about the value of the proximity of Ascend Amphitheater and The Pinnacle, he said the new venue allows for a year-round experience without being impacted by Nashville’s decibel restrictions and also offers more flexibility in staging.
Who will be performing at The Pinnacle (and why)?
DuCharme has announced the names of the people expected to appear in the future room.
- Sat., March 8 | Turnpike Troubadours
- Wed, 12 March | Travel
- Thursday, March 13 | T-Pain
- Friday, March 14 | Russell Dickerson
- Sat., March 15 | Zeds dead
- Wednesday, April 9 | Megan Moroney
- Thursday, April 10 | Megan Moroney
- Sun., May 11 | Trivium and Bullet for My Valentine
Presale for announced shows begins September 19th at 10:00 a.m. CT, followed by general sale on September 20th at 10:00 a.m. CT.
Nashville’s entertainment landscape is full of must-see venues, but venues like the Ryman Auditorium are nearly 150 years old and are now practically built into cramped downtown spaces, making it difficult to drive multiple production trucks and tour buses into the city.
The Pinnacle is a new space in an as-yet-undefined and under-renovation part of Nashville. Artists can conveniently use the venue as their next stop after the Ryman sells out. Or if a national or global act is concerned that the Ryman won’t meet their production needs, they have a location at their disposal that makes Music City a viable touring destination.
“Atmospheres, cultures and energies that are not reflected in most shows in Nashville deserve to flourish in this city,” DuCharme said.
Common space in a newly defined community
The 19-acre site on which the 900,000-square-foot Pinnacle is located will house the namesake bank and Amazon’s 35-story mixed-use office building, the new home of talent booker and manager Creative Artists Agency, and the newly renovated Union Station Hotel and Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Much sooner, however, residential housing and Ascension Saint Thomas Landing, a park along the railroad tracks, will be built. It will include a dog park, a small amphitheater and possibly a pickleball court.
“We want everyone to feel like this is their own space. You don’t have to live here to enjoy it. You don’t have to work here to enjoy it,” Nashville Yards CEO Christian Parker added to the Tennessean in August 2024.
Creating an “entertainment district”
“This is not going to be a cold, commercial venue,” DuCharme said, adding that the venue must have a “real, community” relevance that fits well with the city’s abundance of historically significant sites.
“Ideally, The Pinnacle is a place that serves as another popular venue for locals, but also serves Nashville’s tourism and travel industry well,” the executive said.
DuCharme argued that the difficulties with expensive parking and traffic congestion typical of Lower Broadway would be less likely to be an issue at Nashville Yards. Most notably, the venue will have its own underground parking garage, making it relatively easy to get to, especially for suburbanites coming from Interstates 24, 40 and 65.
The venue’s entrance will be one level above a floor dedicated to restaurants and retail concepts that DuCharme hopes will “create an entertainment district in the center of Nashville Yards’ office and residential areas.”
“We have completely exceeded the production capabilities of this venue…”
The Pinnacle’s open, square ballroom floor, with a standing-room balcony on the second level, is a nod to Denver’s five-year-old Mission Ballroom.
Like Nashville, this city’s growth required a more open space to indoctrinate fans and introduce them to the genres and cultures that were evolving and spreading in the city at an unprecedented rate.
In addition, the main room will not only be acoustically treated for an enhanced sound experience, an expanded rigging grid and a house/broadcast service panel system for tours, events and broadcasts with pre-installed patch panels will also optimally equip the room for concerts and Nashville’s ongoing desire to host private events and live television productions.
“We went overboard with the production capabilities of this venue,” DuCharme said with a laugh.
An 8,000 square meter venue will feature a K2 L sound system that can comfortably amplify music for 20,000 people.
The venue will also feature a 400-seat rooftop deck and bar with an open-air design, rain plan and private artist area, designed to attract the growing number of music industry executives from Los Angeles and New York who are moving to Nashville and demanding post-event amenities.
Redefining the meaning of “Music City”
“Many venues throughout Nashville offer good spaces. But what we offer is what those venues offer, just on steroids,” DuCharme said.
He argued that genres like Americana and country deserve a sophisticated offering in Nashville, while at the same time, EDM and hip-hop have a historical need for space to take the growth of both cultures and genres to the next level in the market.
For him, The Pinnacle further develops the “musical ecosystem and landscape” of Music City.
“If Nashville is to become the music city it has always been, it needs venues that are comfortable for all kinds of music and welcome their fans,” he said.
For more casting announcements and information about The Pinnacle, visit thepinnaclenashville.com.
