In its nearly 88-year history, Notre Dame Stadium has never hosted a music concert. That is about to change.
In a news conference Monday morning, country musician Garth Brooks announced he will be the first artist to perform a full concert at the stadium.
“Notre Dame Stadium has seen so many iconic moments,” Brooks said in a University press release. “I look forward to bringing a new kind of crazy to the party.”
According to the release, former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz and University representatives also attended the press conference.
“Right from the outset, I just felt that Garth represents Notre Dame’s values,” executive vice president John Affleck-Graves said in the release. “And he is the perfect choice as the first artist to perform in concert in the stadium that Rockne built. This promises to be one of the biggest events in Notre Dame history.”
Brooks is currently the Country Music Association entertainer of the year, and which he has won six times — more than any other artist, according to the press release. The release also said the RIAA certified the 56-year-old musician as the No. 1-selling studio artist in U.S. history, and he has been inducted into several halls of fame, including the Musicians Hall of Fame.
“Tradition and memories are built in that stadium,” vice president for campus safety and event management at Notre Dame Mike Seamon said in the release. “It’s an iconic place. This is an important moment, and once we decided we were going to have a concert, Garth just jumped into our minds right away. And we knew that he had to be the one. That was it.”
Affleck-Graves and Seamon said in an email to students that this event fulfills a goal of the recently-completed Campus Crossroads project, which is to have “the ability to host other events for the campus and broader communities.” They cited the upcoming Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins game to be held on Jan. 1, 2019, as another example of the increased hosting abilities of Notre Dame Stadium in the email.
The date of the concert — which will be a stand-alone event — has yet to be announced.
“It’s never been done before, and it’s our understanding that Garth loves to do things that haven’t been done before,” the University’s associate vice president for event management, Lee Sicinski, said in the release. “To bring a historic event like a Garth Brooks concert to the stadium, it just gives you goosebumps.”
