From the Drive-In to Live: INTIX Member Deirdre Naff Shares Her Garth Brooks Stadium Experience

Leadership / 07.28.21

Christine Payne

Sold-out stadiums. It seems almost surreal to write those words together after the pandemic we’ve been through. Indeed, in the U.S., the return to live is well underway.

On July 10, Garth Brooks kicked off his tour at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. It was the first major stadium show since the pandemic began back in March 2020. And, like all of the Garth Brooks shows this summer, it was completely sold out.

Sold. Out. Stadium. Show.

I love typing those words!

Yes, we were all intrigued, hopeful and happy when Garth Brooks announced his drive-in concert series last summer. Two of our INTIX colleagues even made a date night and a girls night out of the event in their respective cities. Deirdre Naff, who now works full time for AXS in Salt Lake City, took in that drive-in show with her girlfriends. Naff and her friends had a great time hanging out but saw very few people wearing masks even though they had just been made mandatory in Utah at the time, so they decided to stay safely in their car for the entire event.

Fast-forward to July 17, 2021, at the 51,000+ capacity Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. Naff once again had a ticket to see the country superstar. And, goodness, were things different from the drive-in. Almost like there was never a pandemic, it would seem.

“There was no opening act because of the heat. They sent out an email saying that he would go on at 8:30 p.m., so I thought, well, if I get there about 8:30 and the gates have already opened, there wouldn’t be a lot of traffic. Wrong,” Naff says. “It was a nightmare because everybody waited until the very last minute still, so the traffic was horrendous and everybody was walking up at 8:30 when he was supposed to go on. Evidently, none of us learned anything while we had a year and a half to think about it.”

Naff continues, “But the concert, he just never ceases to get the crowd eating out of his hand. This was no different. There was almost nobody in the concourse or at concessions because everybody was inside waiting to hear every song he sang.”

An almost-empty concourse with grey concrete floors, grey brick walls and a grey ceiling. A security guard stands under a red and white Section 22 sign, while two other people can be seen in the distance.

How did it compare to the drive-in experience?

“Oh, you can’t compare it. I mean, just being out, watching the crowd, the sound, the stage. There’s no comparison,” Naff says. “There was literally nothing that would tell you it wasn’t just business back to normal.”

Sometimes, the best way to describe something is to show you — and that’s exactly what we are going to do! Thank you to Deirdre for documenting her night in photos at every step of her journey.

Deirdre’s Night in Pictures

“You don’t have to have big hair to go country, but you should at least have big sunglasses,” Naff says.

Deirdre is sitting in the car wearing her seatbelt and huge sunglasses with a black and brown tortoise shell pattern. She has white skin with a few freckles, shoulder-length blonde hair with dark brown roots and is wearing dangling gold earrings. Her shirt is a blue, pink and green floral pattern.

“The concerts starts in 15 minutes and, you guessed it, I’m a half-mile from the stadium in bumper-to-bumper traffic,” she says.

Looking through the front windshield, over the hood of Deirdre’s car and into three lanes of busy traffic. There are trees and a sidewalk on the right and above-ground electric wiring running over a streetcar to the left.

“It’s going to be a long walk uphill in heat,” Naff says. “I’m glad my driver/husband is willing to drop me off at the door and wait.”

Two people are walking uphill on the sidewalk, as shown through Deirdre’s car window. The man is wearing a blue t-shirt, tan shorts and white running shoes. He has white skin and short brown hair. The woman is wearing a flower-patterned dress with thin straps and it is about mid-thigh in length. She has white skin and long blonde hair. On her feet are white, strappy platform sandals.

“How considerate!” she says. “Someone placed a mattress on the side of the road in case Garth’s fans need a rest or …”

An old beige mattress sits on the lawn, partially on top of a torn white and black box spring. The image is taken from Deirdre’s car window.

“Bootleg T-shirts,” says Deirdre. “Everyone is happy to get back to live!”

The same couple in the preceding photo walks uphill on the sidewalk past a man standing at the edge of the street. The man is holding up black bootleg concert shirts. He is wearing a red t-shirt, black, knee-length shorts and white running shoes. He is bald and has black skin.

“If you are in witness protection, you have to watch the concert from here,” Naff says.

An almost entirely black, short bus is shown parked. It has four tinted windows in addition to the driver’s window as well as a few green stripes.

“Sometimes, Utah doesn’t act like it has Pride, but we do,” Naff says.

A Pride flag, with purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red stripes, hangs from the grey front porch of a brown house. There is a brown and burgundy couch with a floral pattern beneath the flag. Behind it is a large window with light brown trim.

“Bleh, more traffic, bumper to bumper,” notes Deirdre as she makes her way closer to the venue. “Doors opened 2.5 hours ago. This road was supposed to be empty when I arrived.”

The four traffic lights are all red. People are crossing the street in front of a black pickup truck, and ahead of it there are three busy lanes of traffic.

“Shades of U2 without a claw. The stage was ‘FIRE,’” shares Deirdre. “Load-in started on Monday [for a Saturday show].”

Garth Brooks’ stage sits amongst a large crowd of people. It has four pillars holding up large video screens and speakers. There are pink lights atop the stage and blue, green and pink lights down the pillars, and pink lights pointing at the stage. On the stage is Garth and his band, and Garth also appears on the large video screens.

“Garth would embrace the world if he could,” says Deirdre.

Garth stands on stage wearing a long-sleeved red button-up shirt, jeans and a cowboy hat. He has a brown moustache and beard. His arms are spread wide and he has his acoustic guitar on a strap sitting on his chest. In front of him are many fans, holding up their phones. Behind him, you can see the lights from many phones in the distance, and it looks just like a starry sky.

“View from the North of Stadium. Ain’t gonna lie, I teared up,” says Deirdre.

Looking down from stairs at the back of the stadium, at section N29, overlooking a large, sold-out crowd. The football scoreboard sits above and behind the stage in the distance. Bright white lights are shining above the large video screen on the stage. Garth is on the screen and he appears to be holding a mic.

“The crowd sang every song! There was no indication at all, not even masks, that we had been through a pandemic,” Deirdre says.

And, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. This photo shared by Deirdre indeed illustrates that when the show — and life — must go on, they do indeed.

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Tags: Music , Leadership , COVID-19 , Coronavirus

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