FULL HOUSE FOR GARTH
Country music superstar gets thunderous reception from record-setting crowd
Garth Brooks performs during his sold-out stadium show Saturday night at Heinz Field on the North Shore. Story in
They came in droves. And then kept coming.
Garth Brooks fans, from the Pittsburgh area and from across the nation, filled North Shore parking lots, restaurants and the riverfront Saturday, playing cornhole and grilling chicken wings as they counted down the hours until the country music superstar played his first chord.
Heinz Field officials predicted the crowd would be 75,000-strong for the biggest-selling solo artist in U.S. history, a record-breaking attendance for the stadium.
“I’ve loved Garth for 20 years. My era was a lot about ‘Friends in Low Places.’ But as you get older, you start to hear that song in different contexts,” Mindy Lazazzera, 48, of Camfield, Ohio, said recalling the memories the song evoked. “I love that his music has so much meaning to it.”
For Wanda Yagla, bringing her husband Thomas to the show was a race against the clock. The 66-yearold was diagnosed with a lifethreatening brain tumor in November and given six months to live, she said.
“I got him here. Only God knows when he’s going,” said Ms. Yagla, 62, of Uniontown. She said friends raised $440 on Facebook to pay for her husband’s dream concert.
But even if you had friends in high places Saturday, everyone had to wait — in traffic, in line, and even during a short severe weather delay just before showtime.
At 2 p.m. more than a dozen parking lots on the North Shore opened to lines of traffic that had built up along North Shore Drive and West General Robinson Street.
As parking lot attendants directed pickup truck after pickup truck to designated spots, passengers jumped out to flip down tailgates and unpack tables, grills and cornhole.
Concertgoers in cowboy hats and boots erected American flags — and even pop-up toilets — within minutes.
Jennifer and Mike Galusha, of Hornell, N.Y., made the drive, with a stopover at a Meadville, Crawford County, motel last night, to see “The Man” — emphasis on “The.”
They parked in a lot under the Interstate 279 overpass for $40 and began grilling chicken, burgers and hot dogs, to be consumed “with lots and lots of alcohol,” said Mike, 48.
After the concert, the couple plan to stay at the Clarion Inn in Cranberry, which they said cost about $109 for a reservation. They said their concert tickets cost about $95 each.
Fans from all 50 states bought tickets to the show, and hotels throughout the city were booked for the weekend, Jimmie Sacco, vice president of stadium operations for Heinz Field, said earlier in the week.
Alexis Zamagias, 24, who lives part time in Sarasota, Fla., where she co-owns a store, said, “I’m leaving at 6 a.m. tomorrow [Sunday]. I literally only came home for Garth.”
Beside her table of Chikfil-A chicken tenders and store-bought veggie trays stood a “pop-up pod” tent with a bucket inside ... in case, you know, nature called.
While the parking-lot partying officially kicked off in the afternoon, some boaters along the Allegheny River had been docked for several days.
Dee Wokutch, 62, of Shaler, and her husband Bill, had been docked since last Sunday, living on their boat and waiting for Garth.
“He puts on a wonderful show. He’s here for the people,” she said. “Plus, he likes us. He likes the Steelers and Pirates. It means a lot.”
The couple, cowboy hats on, strolled the river walk, talking with their boating neighbors.
“We keep things a lot cleaner down here,” Ms. Wokutch said, referring to the infamous trash-ridden parking lots left after Kenny Chesney shows.
Meanwhile, fans at Trisha’s Tailgate — featuring country music and Food Network star Trisha Yearwood, who has been married to Mr. Brooks since 2005 — were treated for $65 a ticket to Pimento cheese nachos, Williams Sonoma “summer-ina-cup” cocktails, flat screen TVs and a pop-heavy playlist of Bruno Mars and Adele.
Ms. Yearwood made her appearance just after 4 p.m. outside Heinz Field when the Steeline drumline introduced her, as she entered the stage chanting “Let’s go, Steelers.”
In a black-and-gold jacket, Ms. Yearwood showed the audience how to make blueberry bars and took questions.
She dropped hints to the crowd that she may be back to the Pittsburgh area after the release of her new album. Her new single titled “Every Girl in this Town,” addresses “what we all want as girls and forgiving yourself if you’re not perfect,” Ms. Yearwood said from the stage.
“I love their relationship,” Renee Bumgardener, 61, of Columbus, Ohio, said about the country music duo’s marriage. “He treats her so wonderful, like every woman wants to be treated.”
As evening approached and Yearwood tailgaters finished up their Buffalo-fried pierogies and chili mac-andcheese hot dogs, fans began a steady march from all directions — some tipsy in cowboy boots — toward Heinz Field.
They poured from the parking lots, the Rivers Casino garage and the lightrail stops. They formed lines to cross the streets, only to form lines again to enter the stadium as the gates opened at 5 p.m.
Some frustrated fans reported waiting for up to 45 minutes.
With 15 minutes until the opening act at 7 p.m., fans for floor seats still stood in a line that wrapped threequarters of the way around the stadium.
“It will be interesting to see how this ends,” said Matt Carroll, 45, of Winchester, Va., who planned to leave before the concert’s end. “It’s crazy you pay $500 and leave a half-hour early. I feel like I got friends in low places.”