1st Summit Arena hopes success of Nelly concert leads to more 'big acts' coming to town

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — The 1st Summit Arena at the Cambria County War Memorial turned into "Nellyville" this weekend when Grammy Award-winning singer Nelly performed right here in Johnstown!

An official at the 1st Summit Arena tells Channel 6, the Nelly concert was not just a great night for the arena, but overall a great night for Johnstown.

“This building has a long history of all kinds of events anywhere from family shows, to sporting events, to concerts. Some of the biggest names in music have played in this building,” says Chad Mearns, the 1st Summit Arena box office and marketing manager.

And the latest artist to perform was Nelly, the American singer best known for his songs “Hot in herre” and “Dilemma”.

“We've had great feedback on it. It was a very full building, very energetic building; a lot of people having a lot of fun,” says Mearns. “It was a great night for Johnstown, great night for the arena, and for all of our fans here it was a lot of fun”.

Mearns says the arena has the capacity to hold about four thousand people and, “Yeah, we had about four thousand people in the building".

The concert tickets for Nelly went on sale in July and Mearns says they sold out within one day.

“We've got a nice streak of a bunch of sell-out shows. This was nice to get into a different genre and continue that sell-out streak, but yeah it’s been on par with what we've seen with recent shows”.

Mearns tells WJAC, they are always adding to the list of performers at the 1st Summit Arena and, “Well, there's a lot that goes into it. We take a look at it to see if we think that the people would support it and in this case we definitely saw that come into effect”.

Mearns says the Nelly concert showed there is an appetite for all kinds of music genres to come perform at the arena.

"People in town, they want to see it, they want to support it and we’re hopeful that we can continue to bring in more from all different genres to this building.”

The 1st Summit Arena already has more events scheduled throughout the rest of December including “Disney On Ice” beginning on the 22nd.

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