The Music Beat: Celebrating 20 years of music at John Paul Jones Arena

While best known for housing the University’s basketball teams, JPJ was quickly recognized as a high-caliber concert venue. In 2006, Pollstar Magazine named it a best new major concert venue, and Sports Illustrated called it the best new basketball arena in 2009. Paul McCartney, The Eagles, The Dead, Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga have all taken the stage at JPJ. (The Concert Archives website lists 289 concerts at the arena over the past two decades.)

Taylor Swift, perhaps the biggest name in entertainment today, has performed at JPJ three times – first opening for George Strait, then headlining on her own Fearless and Red tours.

In recent years, JPJ has hosted acts like Kane Brown, Chris Stapleton, Tyler Childers and Sabrina Carpenter.

University Communications senior photographer Matt Riley shot concert photos at JPJ for about 18 years while working for UVA Athletics. He’s taken pictures of the Dave Matthews Band, Carrie Underwood and the Chainsmokers, among other musicians. He photographed Taylor Swift on her first headlining tour.

“When I look at those pictures now, she just looks like a kid. She has the number 13 written on the back of her hand,” Riley said, referring to Swift’s well-known favorite number. “Looking back, shooting that concert when she was so early in her career, and now she has this global status, it’s awe-inspiring.”

One perk of having an office in JPJ, Riley said, was hearing free previews of the night’s concert as artists ran through sound checks. Some would only play a song or two or make a joke out of it, singing in a silly voice, but when Kelsea Ballerini performed in March 2023, she sang acoustic versions of her whole set while clad in sweatpants. Riley sneaked up to the nosebleeds to listen to her.

“It was one of those ‘pinch me’ moments, because it was a totally empty arena,” Riley said.

Josie Kaye Drumheller, who graduated from UVA in May with an architecture degree, says one of her earliest memories is of attending the Charlottesville stop of Taylor Swift’s Fearless tour. Her family kept the physical tickets she and her mom received from the box office.

Drumheller is from Charlottesville and still lives in town, working as a photographer. She attends a couple of concerts at JPJ every year, and even snagged tickets for Sabrina Carpenter’s sold-out show in 2024.

“My friend and I waited outside JPJ for hours. We were those crazy people,” she said.

She and her friend were among the lucky few to get extra tickets.

“Our section was way off to the side, and it was mostly other people who had been waiting outside for tickets. People had come from Virginia Beach and D.C. to try to see her,” Drumheller said.