Tickets Are Now on Sale for Shaq's Bass All-Stars Festival in Fort Worth

There are plenty of reasons we need Shaquille O'Neal.

Let's say you need to shatter the backboard in the first NBA Jam because you care more about humiliating your opponent than about outscoring your opponent. Well, you need Shaq (and Scott Skiles to a lesser extent).

If you need someone to play a rapping genie in your movie so your weak script can see the light of day, then you need Shaq.

If you get into a verbal sparring match with Charles Barkley over a meaningless fantasy sports topic, then you need Shaq.

If you need a rich man spreading cheer and generous gifts among his new neighbors in Carrollton, you definitely need Shaq.

Right now, Fort Worth's music scene needs Shaq, and Superman himself is answering the call.

The basketball hall of famer and host of TNT's Inside the NBA is bringing the Shaq's Bass All-Stars Festival to Fort Worth's Panther Island Pavilion on Saturday, Sept. 16. The pre-sale tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, followed by general sale tickets at noon, according to the festival's website.

The festival will house two stages of live electronic music, and fear not: none of them will involve Shaq rapping (we hope). Instead, you'll be treated to live performances by rising Australian DJ star Alison Wonderland, prolific bass music producer Kai Wachi (best known for hits "All My Demons" and "RI$E"), guitarist and electro DJ Sullivan King, DJ Crankdat and Diesel. That last one is just Shaq's DJ name, but he's racked up some impressive performances as a bass music maker starting in 2019 on the Lollapalooza tour.  Shaq usually doesn't need to do much to make his presence known on and off the court but he seems to be making North Texas his second home (or third, fourth or fifth depending on how many houses he has right now). He moved into a five-bath, five-bedroom home in Carrollton in 2021. The following year, he announced that his Big Chicken restaurant chain would open in Texas some time this year. Then, pictures and videos of him doing all sorts of good deeds began popping up all over social media — Shaq buying a new washer and dryer for a family at a Best Buy store and buying food for guests at the Hot Freestyle restaurant in Carrollton, for instance.

Now he's doing something similar for Fort Worth. Dallas has been the reigning champion of musical festivals in North Texas, but Shaq's bass fest could be the catalyst that finally gives Dallas some good competition.

If Shaq's festival is a hit, Fort Worth could start some more music festivals or even attract a wide variety of new concerts and shows in multiple genres with bigger and bigger names. Hell, anything that takes money out of Jerry Jones' pocket is already a win.