Country Legend Garth Brooks Now Playing Small Dive Bars Instead Of Stadiums

"Stadiums are officially out for this year", Country Music superstar Garth Brooks announced this week. On Monday's episode of his Facebook series, Brooks also clarified that he made this decision because it's easier for the small venues to implement vaccination policies. "The dive bars are vaccinated!" Brooks said. "That's how you get to do it."

Attendees of Garth's shows will have three options:

1. Be fully vaccinated 14 days prior to the event,
2. Provide proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to the event, or
3. Proof of a negative antigen test within 6 hours prior to the event.

While event like NFL games are requiring proof of vaccination or test, Brooks says "Great for them. I just can't imagine how you pull all that together."

Considering bars can only hold a small fraction of the audience of a stadium show, there will be huge demand for tickets. The first "Dive Bar" show will be October 11th in Oklahoma City and 500,000 fans registered to win one of just 700 tickets through a local radio station.

In his Facebook show, Brooks says he loves playing at small venues. "All I know is [my directive is]: 'G, show up, play, have a fun time. The dive bars are crazy. You remember showing up [but] I don't remember anything during the dive bar [shows]. It's just nuts — and it never slows down... It's just foot to the pedal. Just all the way to the floor. From when you start to when you finish. So much fun. I'm so looking forward to this."

Garth Brooks launched his stadium tour in 2019 but shut it down in early 2020 because of the pandemic. This summer, he had 4 stadium shows before shutting it down again in August.  The United States is averaging, as of Sept 21st, 134,036 new COVID cases over a 7 day period.

Image: Garth Brooks/ Twitter