Notre Dame prepares to welcome 80,000 fans for Luke Combs concert this weekend: What to know
SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Two-time Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year and eight-time Grammy Award Nominee country superstar Luke Combs will take the stage Saturday night at Notre Dame Stadium!
Combs is making the South Bend stop on his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, marking the fifth time historic Notre Dame Stadium has been transformed into a concert venue.
Crews on campus are preparing to welcome 80,000 fans into the house that Rockne built for Combs' only stop closest to Chicago and Indianapolis.
"We've been preparing all week for the show, just all hands-on deck, 24/7, building what we expect to be the largest stage here yet at Notre Dame Stadium," says Lee Sicinski, Executive Director of University Events at the University of Notre Dame. "We are tracking out a lot of new buyers to the area, so it is a great opportunity for our campus and our community to welcome a lot of new people to the area."
The main thing to know whether you're attending the concert or not is that it'll be very similar to gameday operations on Saturday.
The influx of out-of-towners may find themselves 'sleepless in a hotel room' in one of downtown South Bend's 618 hotel rooms, which are basically booked out.
"Hotel rooms are hard to come by right now; short term rentals are hard to come by right now," says Visit South Bend Mishawaka Executive Director Jeff Jarnecke.
Just like any gameday, parking is available for purchase at Notre Dame Stadium, with lots opening at noon on Saturday.
If folks don't want to go through the trouble of parking their 'fast car' on campus, or waiting on backed up rideshares to get to and from the show, fans can either take a short walk by using the Link: a trail that connects downtown to Notre Dame or by hopping on the free Gameday Express shuttle that runs to and from downtown.
"Park at the Century Center, park on the street downtown, park in one of the three garages downtown, and then there are multiple points that you're able to hop on the bus in downtown and it'll drop you right off on campus and pick you up in the same spot and bring you back downtown after the show," Jarnecke explains.
If fans do decide to park, they can set up your own tailgate and pregame the show, or they can join in on the planned festivities happening on campus.
"We have a whiskey tailgate that the Luke Combs Camp is doing with live music out in front of Legends and just south of the stadium; that will begin at 3 o'clock," Sicinski says.
Gates for the show open at five o'clock.
As Luke Combs fans know, 'when it rains it pours', and while there is certainly no chance for a 'hurricane' on Saturday, there is a chance of rain.
"It is a rain or shine event," says Sicinski. "In the event that we have inclement weather, we will treat it very similar to what we would do during a normal football game or any outdoor event. Anything we are tracking on will certainly be communicated via social media, website, and blasted out to everybody we possibly can."
So even if there's a poncho over your cowboy hat, or you trade your cowboy boots for rain boots, fans can still expect to have a 'beautiful, crazy' time.
"It's going to be the makings, and has the makings, of just being an awesome, awesome weekend in St. Joseph County," Jarnecke says.
If you are coming to the concert, be sure to pack your clear bags because it is a clear bag policy at the stadium.
Merch will be available outside Gate B as well as a few other spots around the stadium starting at noon on Saturday, but also from noon to five on Friday only outside Gate B if fans want to grab it before concert day. There are still some limited seats available on Ticketmaster starting at $99 a ticket.