Kansas, KC and the Sunshine Band highlight Rock Hill summer concert series

The lineup for Rock Hill’s Old Town Amphitheater series will have a classic feel this summer, with two heavyweight acts from the 1970s announced as the headliners.

Arena rock giants Kansas and funk-and-disco crew KC and the Sunshine Band will play the downtown amphitheater in June and August, respectively. Rock Hill Downtown Development Manager Cathy Murphy announced the lineup at the end of a public “mini-crawl” through the city’s cultural district on Thursday.

Kansas – which rocked the ’70s with such hits as “Dust in the Wind,” “Carry on Wayward Son” and “Point of Know Return” – will perform June 12 in the amphitheater in front of City Hall on East Black Street.

The rockers will be followed up by KC and the Sunshine Band on Aug. 14. The R&B group is best known for its ’70s hits “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty,” and “Get Down Tonight.”

In between, Rock Hill will host its annual Red, White and Boom celebration at the amphitheater on July 3, with a free concert and fireworks show. The lineup for that concert has not yet been announced.

“Those are usually not national acts. They are more local bands, so it’s easier to book them closer to the event,” Murphy said.

The lineup for the summer series was announced at the end of the mini-crawl to celebrate Rock Hill’s first-in-the-state designation as a “cultural district,” which took in the artistic sites around downtown. Murphy made the concert announcement in the shadow of artist Betty Bate’s public “Emerging Spirit” statue on the Elk Avenue pedestrian mall.

Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols led a public tour of the district, taking a crowd through the Gettys Arts Center, the Community Performance Center and the Center for the Arts, along with other downtown attractions.

In February, downtown Rock Hill was formally named the state’s first “cultural district” by the S.C. Arts Commission, in recognition of its many arts and cultural facilities in the downtown area. Thursday’s mini-crawl doubled as the official announcement of the district.

“We applaud Rock Hill for being the first community to embrace this concept,” said Sarah Lynn Hayes, a member of the Arts Commission and past president of the Arts Council of York County. “Other cities will look to you for guidance.”

Tickets for Kansas’s performance – June 12 at the Old Town Amphitheater on Black Street – are already on sale at CrownTickets.com. Tickets cost from $35 to $65.

Tickets for KC and the Sunshine Band’s performance are also available at CrownTickets.com with a range of $35 for the terrace and $65 for the upper tier.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Kansas, KC and the Sunshine Band highlight Rock Hill summer concert series."