The ever-growing list of stars coming to the Saracen Casino Resort Event Center has prompted rumors of other legendary acts coming to Pine Bluff to grace the city’s newest entertainment venue, specifically Beyonce and Janet Jackson.
If it were only that easy …
“Obviously, this business is very interesting after covid,” said Dawn Stokes, Saracen’s director of entertainment. “Everybody’s prices went up. You used to be able to get a Jake Owen, for instance, you could get a Jake Owen for 50-, 60,000 (dollars). Jake Owen is now 125,000. So everyone has gone up in their prices and a lot of people say, like everyone told me, I should come here today and say we’re getting Beyonce.”
That drew laughs from those who heard from Stokes and Timothy Adams, Saracen’s director of events, Wednesday at the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon.
Stokes said she ran across an online post that Jackson — whose father, Joseph, was born in Fountain Hill (Ashley County) but moved to East Chicago, Ind., at age 12 — would come as well.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“That should be my April Fools’ joke,” Stokes said. “Those people are like millions of dollars. Beyonce’s millions, tens of millions of dollars for one show, because she brings them so much money.”
Stokes said she has even heard requests for R&B great Usher to come.
The acts coming to Saracen, starting with comedian Leslie Jones on April 18, could help Pine Bluff to the national entertainment radar.
The event center has announced eight shows, including country music star Owen on June 4. Rapper Flo Rida is Saracen’s most recent booking, set to rock the house July 31.
Despite their popularity, none of the shows have been sold out yet but are getting close, Stokes said. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.
Adams said a date of substantial completion for the event center hasn’t been determined, as some work will continue through the end of April, when he hopes it would be ready for full tours.
“It’s really cumbersome, being a construction site, and it’s not the ideal tour for the person you’re giving a tour, and then you’re also kind of getting in the way of the construction, which we really want them to be complete and gone for good, right?” Adams said. “Small groups can, I think, by the end of this month, hopefully we’re going through, and you won’t need the hard hats and things like that, and I’ll be glad to meet anybody and give them a full tour. If you can wait just that much longer, it’ll be a much better tour and overall experience.”
Adams confirmed Starbucks is coming to Saracen, though no date has been set.
“The entrance to the lobby is going to be magnificent,” Adams said. “It’s three stories high with glass as you come in. There’s a terrazzo tile floor. You’ll walk into the front desk agents and to your left beneath the stairwell that leads you up to the event center …, beneath that stairwell is a Starbucks.”
Pine Bluff was seen as a hub for entertainment in the Mid-South when its Convention Center opened a week before the Bicentennial in 1976. Dionne Warwick performed there on the second day of the center’s existence, and Elvis Presley played the following September, less than a year before his death.
Following his luncheon speech, Adams addressed a recent report of the Convention Center picking up more business, contrary to predictions the arrival of the Saracen Event Center would mean otherwise for the city-owned downtown facility. He suggested drawing guests would have a trickle-down effect across the city.
“A lot of it, you know, is (attributed to) the community,” Adams said. “If people come to the show, they’re spending money in Pine Bluff, staying in Pine Bluff. A lot of it is marketing toward our customers and bringing people into the casino, but that spills over throughout, and, like I said, we use it as a marketing tool to try to hit the different genres and demographics to get people to come to the casino.”
Saracen Event Center
Confirmed shows
April 18: Leslie Jones
May 9: Kool and the Gang
May 16: Great White and Slaughter
June 4: Jake Owen
June 13: John Legend
July 11: Jeff Foxworthy
July 18: Australian Pink Floyd Show
July 31: Flo Rida
Tickets: Ticketmaster.com