Multi-platinum ’80s rockers Def Leppard will headline the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand for the sixth time on Aug. 26 and the best seats will cost you.
Tickets are priced from $292 to $77 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Etix or by phone at 800-514-3849.
The $292 tickets set a new all-time high price for a Grandstand show. In 2023, the Jonas Brothers were the first act to top $200 for prime seats. The trio’s $207 price was matched in 2024 by Blake Shelton and Motley Crue.
Formed in England in 1977, Def Leppard went on to become one of the biggest acts of the ’80s with a long list of smashes that include “Photograph,” “Rock of Ages,” “Animal,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Hysteria,” “Armageddon It,” “Love Bites” and “Rocket.”
The band’s hits dried up by the end of the ’90s, but they’ve continued to record new music while touring heavily, often on dual bills with the likes of Journey and Motley Crue. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.
In 2022, the group released their twelfth album, “Diamond Star Halos.”
More recently, they issued the stand-alone singles “Just Like 73” (featuring a guest guitar solo by Tom Morello) and a cover of Ben E. King’s classic “Stand by Me” (with all proceeds going to FireAid, which raises money for those impacted by the fires in Los Angeles).
In an interview with Sirius XM, guitarist Phil Collen said a new album is in the works: “So we’ve, yeah, got a bunch of stuff. It’s really exciting. And it’s a great place to be. It’s never that thing where, ‘Well, we’ve got to sit down and write an album.’ It’s, like, ‘Wow, I can’t wait to play this to the guys and see what the reaction is.’ And we keep pushing the boat out even further.”
The Minnesota State Fair runs from Aug. 21 through Sept. 1. Def Leppard join the previously announced headliners Old Dominion on Aug. 21 and the joint bill of Melissa Etheridge and Indigo Girls on Aug. 24.