The Beatles at Atlanta Stadium, 1965

The Beatles played Atlanta Stadium, later called Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, on 18 August 1965. It was their only concert in Georgia. The stadium was imploded in 1997 and its footprint became a parking lot, where Georgia State University started building a baseball stadium in December 2025. A marker there honors Hank Aaron, but nothing marks the Beatles.

Ten hours in Atlanta

The stadium had opened only four months earlier, on 9 April 1965. The Beatles flew in on 18 August and were gone before midnight, heading on to Houston. At the 5 pm press conference Mayor Ivan Allen gave them the key to the city. Asked about music, the band named two Georgians, Otis Redding and James Brown, among their favorites.

Tickets cost $4.50 to $5.50. Today in Georgia History puts the crowd at more than 30,000, and The Paul McCartney Project gives 34,000, with receipts of $88,637. Six acts played first: Brenda Holloway, King Curtis, Cannibal and the Headhunters, Sounds Incorporated, the Discotheque Dancers and a local group, the Vibrations. At 9:37 pm the Beatles came out of the third-base dugout to a stage set up near second base and played 12 songs.

A stage where the band could hear itself

Baker Audio put monitor speakers on the Atlanta stage, which few venues did then. The band said afterwards that Atlanta was the first stop where they could hear themselves for at least part of the set. The main PA was still basic, and only the vocals went through it, with no microphones on the amplifiers or drums.

The site today

The Braves moved next door to Turner Field in 1997, and the old stadium was imploded on 2 August that year. The ground became a parking lot for Turner Field. Georgia State University bought both in 2016, and Turner Field is now its football venue, Center Parc Stadium.

One piece of the old ballpark stayed in the lot: a section of outfield wall with a marker where Hank Aaron's 715th home run landed on 8 April 1974. On 11 December 2025 Georgia State started building a baseball stadium of about 1,000 seats on the old footprint, at a cost of about $16 million. Completion is planned for fall 2026 and the first game for February 2027. The Aaron marker will be built into left field, and his statue will move to the entrance.

Nothing on the site mentions the Beatles, and no plaque for the 1965 concert has been reported. The stadium was at 521 Capitol Avenue SE in the Summerhill neighborhood.

In September 1964 the band had played an outdoor stadium show in the South at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.