Garth Brooks isn’t letting the coronavirus pandemic keep him away from the stage — or his fans.
The country star is putting on a special concert that will play at 300 drive-in theaters across North America on June 27, Brooks announced Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
“This is going to be all over North America, one night only,” Brooks told “Good Morning America.” “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.’”
The event will follow a number of safety protocols, including maintaining at least six feet of distance between vehicles, limiting capacity in restrooms and using payment and ticketing systems that don’t require contact, according to “Good Morning America.”
Tickets are $100 and cover one passenger car or SUV. They will go on sale June 19 at 10 a.m. MT at ticketmaster.com/garthbrooks.
From his home studio, Brooks has frequently performed live music sessions via Facebook amid the pandemic — a trend big artists like Josh Groban have also embraced during this time.
On March 23, Brooks’ Facebook Live concert with wife and fellow country star Trisha Yearwood brought in more than 3 million people, causing the site to crash multiple times, the Deseret News reported. A week after that concert, Brooks and Yearwood did an hourlong CBS special where they took additional requests from their fans.
Now, Brooks is involving drive-in theaters, which represents another creative trend that has emerged during the pandemic. With major theaters across the country shut down, drive-in theaters have seen a resurgence in popularity, the Deseret News reported, generating revenue as regular movie theaters remain dark. That trend will likely intensify heading into the summer, according to the Deseret News.
“Families need safe entertainment options that they can enjoy together this summer,” Walter Kinzie, the founder and CEO of Encore Live — the production company behind the event — told “Good Morning America.” “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.”
A full list of drive-in theaters showing the event hasn’t yet been released, but so far, according to Ticketmaster, the concert is officially playing in Forth Worth, Texas, and Cincinnati.
“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,” Brooks told “Good Morning America.” “I hope people are going to start working on flashing their light, honking their horns and hopefully rolling down their windows.”