One of country music’s biggest events doesn’t happen in Nashville.
It happens just on the other side of the Cascades.
The sold-out Watershed Festival, which is marking its fourth year this weekend, will again take over the Gorge Amphitheatre through Aug. 2, hosting a long list of country stars and up-and-comers.
This year’s headliners include Florida Georgia Line, Carrie Underwood and Dierks Bentley, with a long list of other acts supporting those three. Other names on the bill include Chris Young, Gary Allan and Jana Kramer, among many more.
The festival began in 2012, with organizers conceiving of a way to draw country fans together for music and camping — a Nashville version of Sasquatch, basically. The Gorge was a perfect fit, and so the Northwestern venue has now become an unexpected destination for fans of music most popular in the south.
Tickets are sold-out but can be found at a mark-up at stubhub.com.
Closer to home, Imagine Dragons will return to the Northwest for a show at the Tacoma Dome at 7:30 p.m. July 31.
The bombastic alt-rockers are touring now behind “Smoke + Mirrors,” their second album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this February.
The group has been a steady presence on rock radio for the past three years thanks to the string of hits featured on its debut album, “Night Visions.” That multiplatinum success produced the singles “Radioactive,” “Demons” and “On Top of the World.”
Tickets are $26.50 to $56.50 at ticketmaster.com or 800-745-3000.
Idina Menzel also is heading to town, playing Seattle’s Paramount Theatre at 8 p.m. Aug. 5.
Menzel has been well-known to fans of Broadway for years, appearing in some of the stage’s biggest musicals in the past decades, including her Tony-nominated turn in “Rent” and a Tony win for her part in “Wicked.” But it took a cartoon character to really make her a household name.
As the voice of Princess Elsa in the hit Disney movie “Frozen,” she sang the song’s biggest track, “Let It Go,” which went on to both win an Oscar and have its lyrics memorized by almost every child in America under the age of 7. In the process, she turned into a legitimate pop star.
She’s touring now, singing songs from throughout her increasingly storied career.
Tickets are $36.25 to $121.25 at stgpresents.org or 877-784-4849.
This weekend, Jackson Browne will headline the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville for a pair of shows at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1 and 2.
The singer-songwriter’s sharp lyrics and folk-flecked sound have helped propel a long string of hits, including “The Pretender,” “Somebody’s Baby” and “In the Shape of a Heart.”
Tickets to the sold-out Saturday show can be found at a mark-up at stubhub.com, while tickets remain for $50.50 to $70.50 to the Sunday show at ticketmaster.com or 800-745-3000.
Finally, the pop-reggae act Slightly Stoopid will play King County’s Marymoor Park amphitheater at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 6.
The California act is returning to the road after the June release of its latest album, “Meanwhile … Back at the Lab.” That disc follows past successes that nodded at the group’s weed-loving ways, including 2007’s “Chronchitis” and 2008’s “Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid.”
Tickets are $35 at showboxonline.com or 888-929-7849.
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