City of Branson, concert venue not in harmony over upcoming Nelly show

By Ashley Yarchin

St. Louis (KSDK) -- Hip-hop artist Nelly is at the center of a potential lawsuit against the City of Branson, but he's not the one taking officials to court.

At 1:44 p.m. Thursday afternoon, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay tweeted, "The unannounced guest for the Chuck Berry concert has never played in Branson."

He likely made that comment since Nelly is scheduled to play his first show there in the back parking lot of Grand Palace on August 21 and a lot of people are talking about the controversy surrounding it.

In order to play there, the city council needed to sign off on a special events permit but on Tuesday they voted unanimously and shot them down.  Administrator Dean Kruithof said the area cannot accommodate parking for the 6,000 people expected and there would be noise violations.

Grand Palace representative told NewsChannel 5 that they want to get an injunction to stop the city from blocking the show.

"It doesn't have the proper zoning for an outdoor concert and for that reason we said no," Kruithof said.  "It has nothing to do with the performer or the performance and the fact ism if new acts were to come to town, I think a lot of people would welcome that with open arms."

Grand Palace plans to file the lawsuit against the City of Branson first thing Friday morning.  In the meantime, folks from the Palace are looking for an alternative location because they say the show must go on.

A representative for Nelly said that he would not comment on the lawsuit but is looking forward to putting on a good show for Branson.