After several tries at rescheduling, Garth Brooks has canceled Charlotte stadium show
Garth Brooks tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, but on Wednesday afternoon, the country music star decided it was time to give up, for now: Due to renewed COVID-19 concerns, Brooks announced he is canceling the concert he had planned to bring to Bank of America Stadium on Sept. 25.
The Charlotte show is among five that he said he was canceling.
“In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us,” Brooks said in a news release. “Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part. I have asked the wonderful cities of Cincinnati and Charlotte to wait too long and I don’t want to now do that same thing to the great folks in Boston and Baltimore.
“As far as Nashville, we are looking for a make up date from the July rain out and though this is not COVID related, to make them wait makes me sad, as well. So, it is with a heavy heart we announce the decision to cancel all 5 shows.”
Refunds will automatically be issued to the original method of payment used to buy the tickets.
Trying to keep the date
The cancellation marks the conclusion of a series of bets that Brooks just couldn’t get to pay off.
Previously, the 59-year-old icon — who was celebrated in June at the 43rd Kennedy Center Honors — had rescheduled his Bank of America Stadium concert four times, each time due to the pandemic.
Pre-COVID-19, the country music megastar made huge news when it was first revealed that his “Stadium Tour” would be coming to Charlotte, with an original date of May 2, 2020.
Like other artists, he rescheduled as the pandemic set in. But Brooks kept trying to anticipate a relatively rapid return to big shows, without success.
He first pushed to June 13, but that proved way too soon. He tried Oct. 10, and that didn’t work out either, so he postponed again to April 10, before the fourth postponement pushed it to Sept. 25.
No other major show had tried as hard to stay on the calendar.
Other shows to be concerned about
The cancellation is another bad sign for live-music fans in Charlotte.
Concert-going here rapidly had been trying to return to normal, with artists like Luke Bryan and Dave Matthews Band pulling off crowded spectacles at outdoor amphitheater PNC Music Pavilion in July. And country supergroup Alabama headlining indoors at Spectrum Center as recently as last Friday.
But now it’s looking like that trend is starting to reverse itself.
Brooks’ decision follows one earlier this month from Michael Bublé, who postponed a concert that was supposed to take place at Spectrum Center on Wednesday night, citing the nation’s rising coronavirus infections. He rescheduled it for October.
One show Charlotte now likely will have to keep wondering about is the Rolling Stones concert set for Sept. 30. That highly anticipated performance — originally scheduled for last summer, then postponed due to COVID-19 — was re-booked for the fall date at Bank of America Stadium only a few weeks ago.
At any rate, the Brooks cancellation comes as a huge blow to fans who suffered through the many postponements, and who haven’t seen him play here in a long, long time: He hasn’t been to Charlotte since he played a pair of sold-out shows (attended by 48,000-plus) on back-to-back nights at the old Charlotte Coliseum in March 1998.
“With a hopeful heart,” Brooks said in his statement, “we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us.”
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 1:10 PM with the headline "After several tries at rescheduling, Garth Brooks has canceled Charlotte stadium show."
