Louisville, KY (April 11, 2016) – More than 70,000 fans packed the KFC Yum! Center for four Garth Brooks’ concerts April 8th and 9th. Fans came out in record numbers to support the artist, who had not played in Louisville in 18 years. The two double headers make the first time an artist has performed more than one show consecutively at the KFC Yum! Center since it opened in October 2010.
The concert attracted numerous fans from outside Louisville. The sold-out 7 pm show Saturday attracted 65 percent of the fans from cities outside Louisville and Southern Indiana, including Indianapolis, Chicago, Lexington and Cincinnati, among others, while the other three shows drew more than 50 percent of their attendees from outside of the Louisville area.
“On behalf of Garth’s entire crew, I’d like to thank the fans in Louisville for making the four performances there truly memorable,” said Ben Farrell, with the Brooks’ organization. “We are extremely appreciative to the KFC Yum! Center employees who worked tirelessly to make sure every aspect of the event went smoothly.”
KFC Yum! Center staff spent countless hours planning and preparing for the back to back performances, even staging a mockup event in advance of the concerts to develop the most efficient plan to get fans in and out of the building between shows. And the support from Brooks’ promoter Varnell Enterprises, Louisville Metro Police, the Parking Authority of River City and local media to develop and communicate the plan aided in its success. The result was one of the quickest turnarounds between shows on Garth’s entire tour.
“I could not be more pleased with the efforts of our entire staff to make the Garth Brooks’ concerts a huge success.” said Dennis Petrullo, KFC Yum! Center General Manager. “Garth Brooks’ promoter was a pleasure for our entire team to work with and helped ensure every detail was considered in our preparations. We cannot thank the fans enough for showing up in record numbers to celebrate Garth’s return to Louisville.”