On the same day two country music stars were to hit the stage for the first of nine shows at Rogers Place, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson proclaimed Friday, February 17, 2017 as Garth Brooks Day.

Between February 17 and 25, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will perform a total of nine shows at the downtown arena. The first show is at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

 

 

Tickets for the series of shows sold quickly when they went on sale in early December, 2016, the promoter quickly adding a number of shows on the first day, and then adding four more the following week.

CTV News spoke to officials at Rogers Place Thursday; they called the series of shows the biggest event hosted at the new venue since it opened – and workers at the venue are ready.

“Staff is absolutely excited,” Live Entertainment Assistant GM Sheena Way said. “We’re all, we’ve been working on this for a long time.”

Officials said planning has been underway for a year.

“Thinking about all that stuff, garbage pickups, recycling pickups, re-stocking, cleaning bathrooms,” Way said.

Plus, extra staff had been hired to handle the tens of thousands of fans expected to attend the shows.

“We have more signage in the building, we’re doing everything we can to make it as user friendly as possible,” Way said.

Meanwhile, fans are being asked to plan ahead, arrive early to find parking and get through security and the gates – doors will open an hour and a half before each show, and the only entrance is at Ford Hall.

On days when two shows are scheduled, officials have strategically planned how fans will arrive and exit the venue.

“On the double shows we’re going to be ingressing through Ford Hall as well, so we’re going to have our guests leaving through the quadrants, and that’s how the building was built to egress that way,” Way said.

Fans who will have to use their credit cards to enter are reminded to bring the card they paid for the tickets with – although it only applies to a small amount of seats in the whole venue.

“It’s a really small percentage of the whole venue that’s a credit card entry and we have dedicated lines for it, it won’t slow things down at all,” Way said.

Meanwhile, some changes have been made to celebrate the series of shows, the area known as Hockey House will be transformed into a saloon and restaurants inside will offer a southern-inspired menu and cocktails.

Rogers Place has added a Garth Guide to their website with more details.

The concerts are also having an impact on businesses around Rogers Place, as the shows in Edmonton are the only concerts slated for western Canada.

“People are coming from all over the region, we’re seeing people from northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, B.C., a lot of Calgary audiences are coming up for this,” Renee Williams with Edmonton Tourism said.

Crash Hotel, located near Rogers Place, has seen a flood of reservations for concert nights.

“We had to turn away a whole slew of people, we were sold out probably a month ago,” Chris Short with Crash Hotel said.

For the stars of the shows, they said they’re glad they are having a positive impact on the city.

“If there’s any way to pay that back, either through the economic issue or the economic impact that it makes, good for them, but I always feel like we’re taking this on,” Brooks said in a news conference Friday.

“We want to leave a city and go ‘Oh man, I’m hoping people are glad we came’,” Yearwood said.

With files from Angela Jung and Amanda Anderson