SCARBOROUGH — Reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year and three-time Grammy Award-winner Brad Paisley will headline the first Seacoast Country Music Festival at Scarborough Downs on Sunday, July 17.

The festival will also feature CMA Male Vocalist of the Year Blake Shelton, who will co-host the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards next month with Reba McEntire; and Jerrod Niemann, whose multiple award nominations in 2010 included his first CMA Award nomination as New Artist of the Year.

Tickets, which range from $50 to $125, will go on sale March 26 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased by calling 1-888-333-3101 or online at SpeedyTix.com.

“This venue is going to be built from the ground up,” event organizer Mike Flanagin of Good Music Productions told a press conference Wednesday.

The venue will seat 15,000 people and the organizers have planned enough parking for approximately 5,000 cars.

“You’re going to see the biggest country music show this state has ever seen,” Flanagin said.

Jim Goodwin, who works with Flanagin, said Good Music Productions hopes Scarborough will become a regular stop for entertainers who travel the Hartford-Boston circuit.

“But that’s ways down the road,” he said. “This is the first small step. We’ll take a bigger step next year and then we’ll see.”

Good Music Productions has a licensing agreement with Scarborough Downs to produce shows on the horse-racing track’s grounds. Should Scarborough Downs move to Biddeford to build a racino, which is the company’s current plan, Goodwin said the shows will continue on the Scarborough property.

Paisley, a singer, songwriter, guitarist and Grand Ole Opry member, has won 14 CMA Awards and 13 Academy of Country Music Awards. He has 18 No. 1 singles and released nine studio albums.

Lewiston Sun Journal Entertainment Editor Ursula Albert contributed to this story. Emily Parkhurst can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or eparkhurst@theforecaster.net

This report was updated on Wednesday, March 16, 2011.

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