AUSTIN, TX (CelebrityAccess) — Miranda Lambert and Parker McCollum were joined by a roster of Texas artists, actors, and athletes for the “Band Together Texas” benefit concert, which raised more than $8.5 million to support statewide flood relief.
Held Sunday night at the Moody Center in Austin, the sold-out concert delivered three hours of music and entertainment, with proceeds benefiting The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country and the Central Texas Community Foundation as the region recovers from the deadly July floods.
The floods, which struck the Texas Hill Country on July 4–5, displaced thousands and claimed at least 117 lives, including several teenagers at the devastated Camp Mystic in Guadalupe.
Actor and Texas native Matthew McConaughey opened the evening, which featured performances by Lambert, Jason Aldean, Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn, Cody Johnson, and Red Dirt singer Wade Bowen, who offered a moving acoustic version of “A Beautiful World.”
“Thank you, Austin, Texas, for showing up tonight. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in and showing up for us. We are banding together as Texans tonight,” Lambert told the crowd after a duet with McCollum on the George Strait classic “True,” which kicked off the live performances. “It’s going to be a magical night of music, and for an amazing cause. My buddy Parker and I, we called each other right away and we asked, ‘What can we do? We can sing, so let’s go sing.’ And that’s what we’re doing tonight!”
In addition to the live event, the concert was livestreamed on iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, YouTube, Facebook, and nugs.net, giving fans everywhere the chance to contribute to the relief efforts.
Sponsors included the WoodNext Foundation, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, John Paul & Eloise DeJoria Family Foundation, Woodforest National Bank, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Four Seasons Hotel Austin, H-E-B, Kendra Scott, Moody Center, Poncho, Tecovas, Uber, and Whataburger.
