Jason Aldean will make his first Youngstown appearance, and Eric Church will play his first local show in 14 years as 2026’s YLIVE headliners.
Aldean will perform on July 10, and Church will play the following evening. For the first time since 2019, YLIVE will return to Youngstown State University’s Stambaugh Stadium after three years at Wean Park.
“I’m proud of what we did at Wean Park,” said Eric Ryan, founder and CEO of JAC Live. “We turned a flat piece of space into a concert venue. But there is zero question that Stambaugh Stadium, to me, rivals what would be any concert venue across the country. Just the idea of coming back home, we’re super excited.
“I remember Florida-Georgia Line (in 2018) coming off stage and their manager saying, ‘Wow, wow,’ because it really feels like, to them, like the people are on top of you. There’s nothing artists like more than an intimate setting, even when it’s 20,000 people, and that’s exactly what we have here.”
Bill Johnson wasn’t YSU president when the stadium hosted the first three YLIVE events from 2017 to 2019, but he said he is excited to have the concerts back on campus.
“When you talk about being the flagship university of a region, one of the things that a flagship university has to do, you have to attract the community to your campus for things other than education, (other) than sitting in a classroom. They have to come for retail and entertainment and other kinds of things, and YLIVE fits right in that mold. And I’m really grateful that Eric expressed an interest, and we resurrected the opportunity. Everybody I know, from our board to our leadership team, our facilities team, everybody here on campus is very excited about this.”
For years, Ryan talked about turning YLIVE into a multiday event, because of the significant costs of erecting a large outdoor stage and renting equipment and video screens for a single concert. Two shows allows JAC Live to spread out those costs. Returning to Stambaugh also helps because the stadium is set up to handle crowds for a ticketed event and doesn’t require the extensive temporary fencing needed at Wean Park.
But that creates a different challenge — finding two headliners who can draw up to 20,000 concertgoers who are available for the same weekend.
“Jason Aldean is playing a festival about 300 miles away the next day, so that really worked in our favor (along with) the fact that he wasn’t playing Cleveland or Pittsburgh or anywhere else close,” Ryan said. “It’s the same thing with Eric Church. Eric Church is not doing a tour, per se, this year, so that really (presented) the opportunity to be able to do it. Once we knew that they were available, and then once we were able to finish our agreement with YSU, away we went. And we think it’s a wonderful lineup.”
Aldean is one of the most successful country artists of the 21st century. Since his self-titled debut album in 2005, Aldean has had 30 songs top the country charts, and his music has been streamed nearly 20 billion times.
He won the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer Of The Year Award three consecutive years and is a five-time Grammy nominee.
Opening for Aldean will be another country icon. Travis Tritt is a two-time Grammy winner who had five songs top Billboard’s country singles chart. He’s also appeared in dozens of films and television series.
Among Tritt’s many fans is Johnson, who said he’s seen Tritt in concert several times.
“I am a big country fan,” Johnson said. “I’m an artist wannabe myself. If I could have chosen any other profession, I would have stuck with guitar playing and singing years and years ago. I played in bands and all that kind of stuff.”
While this will be Aldean’s first local appearance, Church played the Covelli Centre in 2012 for a show that was a quick sellout.
“He’s a rocker,” Ryan said. “That’s what really stood out to me.”
Church won seven ACM and four CMA awards and has 11 Grammy nominations, including one for best contemporary country album for “Evangeline Vs. the Machine” at next month’s ceremony.
His number one singles include “Drink in My Hand,” “Springsteen,” “Record Year,” “Some of It,” “Hell of a View” and “The Only Way I Know,” a collaboration with this year’s other 2026 YLIVE headliner (Aldean) and its 2022 headliner (Luke Bryan).
Opening for Church will be Ernest, who sang with Morgan Wallen on the chart-topping “Cowgirls” and the top 20 single “Flower Shops” and also charted with “Would If I Could,” featuring Lainey Wilson. He’s also had success as a songwriter, co-writing hit singles for Wallen, Sam Hunt and Chris Lane.
A third act also could be added to each lineup, Ryan said.
YLIVE won’t be the only thing happening on campus that weekend. YSU’s popular Summer Festival of the Arts is scheduled July 11 and 12.
“There will be thousands of people here that are participating in that,” Johnson said. “We’re kind of springboarding off of two really big events to support each other, and we think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. People that are coming for the concert will come early and go downtown or go down to the campus and take a look at what’s going on there with the Summer Festival of the Arts and vice versa. I’m sure you’re going to get a lot of people that are coming for the summer festival that will say, ‘Hey, we’re already out there, so let’s go to the show too.’”
Activities also will be planned downtown, Ryan said, and those partnerships with YSU and the city are an important part of making YLIVE possible.
“Obviously, whenever you do an event like this, you need all the support you can get.” Ryan said. “We all need to work together. This is about bringing, hopefully, 40,000 people over two nights to downtown Youngstown. And without those partnerships and our sponsors, we really couldn’t do it without it.”
Tickets for each YLIVE show start at $64.95 (including fees), and both shows will go on sale at 10 a.m. Jan. 30 exclusively through Ticketmaster. Discounted ticket packages good for admission to both concerts will be available starting at $114.95.
A presale for two-day tickets is planned at 10 a.m. Jan. 28, and a presale for single-day tickets starts at 10 a.m. Jan. 29. For more information, go to Ylivemusic.com.
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