The ACM Awards facility in which the show is held, MGM Grand Garden Arena being a chief example, is sometimes just one component of a greater stage. The Academy of Country Music Awards is an example of such a citywide event. The ACM Awards telecast has toggled between Grand Garden Arena and Mandalay Bay Events Center in recent years. Last year, the Linq Promenade’s outdoor festival grounds to the east of the High Roller were folded into the event.
The ACM Awards shifted to the spacious AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on April 19 for its 50th anniversary, celebrated in Texas-sized fashion on CBS. After the show’s hoedown in the big barn that is home to the Dallas Cowboys, the show is back in Las Vegas for 2018 and is once more going to span multiple venues on the Strip.
Specifically, the new MGM Resorts Festival Grounds will be abuzz with country stars during the ACM Awards' return from April 1-3, 2018. A trio of headliners already is booked to perform over three nights: Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and Dierks Bentley.
This is the second event booked at the Festival Grounds after the upcoming Rock in Rio USA festival the weekends of May 8-9 and May 15-16. These ACM Awards performances are to be full concerts, each night, on the open 50-acre space, not abbreviated sets, as was the case when the Linq hosted the ACM Party for a Cause last year.
Hunter Hayes did perform a full show on the Thursday night preceding the ACM Awards telecast, but the ACM Party for a Cause was a spree of 20 acts over 48 hours — those performing included Rascal Flatts, Florida Georgia Line and Keith Urban.