Garth Brooks drive-in concert coming to over 300 locations
Garth Brooks fans will have a chance to see him perform this year after all.
The country singer will host a concert event at 300 drive-in theaters across North America on June 27, he announced on "Good Morning America" on Thursday.
"This one guy came to me and said, 'Hey, look, we can put 300 drive-in theaters together if you will create a concert solely for the drive-ins. We can have families jump in the car, get them out on Saturday night," Brooks said.
"They're going to run it just like a regular concert, but this is going to be all over North America, one night only," he continued. "We are excited because this is a reason to get out of the house, but at the same time you get to follow all the COVID rules from every individual state and you get to have fun and stay within the guidelines of social distancing ... we're calling it 'social distancing partying.'"
Tickets go on sale on Ticketmaster June 19 and will cost $100, which accounts for one passenger car or SUV. Brooks warned fans that there aren't a lot of tickets, so they will need to act fast.
Due to social distancing guidelines associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-in theaters have seen a resurgence in popularity recently.
Encore Live, the production company behind Brooks' concert event, has partnered with health experts to create safety protocols which include maintaining at least six feet of distance between vehicles, the use of personal protective equipment by employees, limiting capacity in restrooms and relying on contactless payment and ticketing systems.
"Families need safe entertainment options that they can enjoy together this summer," said Walter Kinzie, Encore Live's founder and chief executive officer. "We're excited to partner with Garth, who's already done so much to help the entertainment industry during these tough times, to provide a truly unique and incredible concert that will do a whole lot of good for local businesses and communities."
Brooks said he hopes his fans are ready for a fun experience.
"I hope people are going to start working on flashing their light, honking their horns and hopefully rolling down their windows," he said on "GMA."
"The cool thing is drive-ins aren't like they were when we were kids," he continued. "We had the speaker that you put on the window, now just tune right into your own car radio. You can blast it and blare it as loud as you want -- windows up, windows down, sing along. This is a perfect way for us to still get to play music and still follow all the rules that we're under right now."
The singer also gave an update on when his new album "Fun" is coming.
"The thing is while everybody is under the restrictions and, you know, the quarantine kind of thing, I just didn't want to be a guy out promoting stuff for me while other people are truthfully suffering," he explained.
"When things start to kick back up and everybody can smile again and be joyous again -- I think that's what I love about the drive-in series, just come laugh, forget everything for two hours, throw everybody in the truck and go -- I think that's when we'll release music," he said.
