It's official: Adele coming to Xcel Center on Aug. 24

Xcel Energy Center formally announced the news we broke yesterday that Adele will be playing there Aug. 24 -- quite a sizeable upgrade from her twice-postponed First Avenue gig.

Tickets go on sale July 11 at 10 a.m., which is also when ticketholders for the First Ave date(s) will be allowed to exchange tickets at no extra cost -- even though prices are going up ($29.50, $50, $75, $89). Organizers are setting aside three sections of seats for these prior ticketholders, too (Sections 109, 110 and 111). It's all spelled out here on the arena's site.

It seems like a pretty fair handling of the difficult situation. Never mind the disappointment of seeing her in an arena vs. an intimate night club, and/or the frustration that must be felt by fans who paid scalper prices just to get into the First Ave show. Tickets still could sell out fast, since they are billing this as a "Theater at Xcel Energy Center" concert, which means the arena will be cut in half with curtains. Lady Gaga sold out the full arena on two consecutive nights, after all, and Lady Atkins is whooping Gaga's over-exposed butt on the Billboard charts right now.

While Twin Cities fans were the only ones to be postponed on twice, they aren't alone in this upsizing of her tour: Seven of the 14 postponed dates have been moved into bigger venues. Six new dates were also added. The shows are split between August and October, so at least we can feel a little lucky about being in the August run. Another thing that local Adele fans should be happy about -- even if most don't know it yet -- is that one of the earliest female rock stars in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Wanda Jackson, has been picked up as the opening act on the tour. Jackson will perform at the Minnesota Zoo just a few weeks earlier with Justin Townes Earle.