An opening act or warm-up act (in British English and Australia, supporting act) is an entertainer, musician, band, or entertainment act that performs at a concert before the featured (or headline) entertainer/musician(s). Rarely, an opening act may perform again at the end of the concert.
The opening act's performance serves to "warm up" the audience, making it appropriately excited and enthusiastic for the headliner.
In rock music, the opening act will usually be an up-and-coming group with a much smaller following than the featured artist. On long concert tours, different opening acts may be used for different legs of the tour.
The opening act may also be followed by a DJ in some shows before the headline act performs.
Famous quotes containing the words opening and/or act:
“But every insight from this realm of thought is felt as initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make it; I arrive there, and behold what was there already. I make! O no! I clap my hands in infantine joy and amazement, before the first opening to me of this august magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable ages, young with the life of life, the sunbright Mecca of the desert.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)