#GARTHinNASHVILLE
“The thunder rolls…and the lightnin’ strikes.” Every time I am in a thunder storm, I start singing the song in my head. Released in 1991, The Thunder Rolls is actually about a guy who gets caught cheating, and the storm is both physical and metaphorical. But, that is neither here or there.
This past weekend, my fiancé and I went to Nashville. I had an engagement session to shoot (Fyke Photography) and I thought I would surprise Kaycee with Garth Brooks tickets for her birthday. We got ready, struggled finding an Uber or Lyft (but were finally successful), and headed to Nissan Stadium for the concert. We did arrive about 30min late due to horrific traffic. We were not the only ones that were late and that made me feel better. As we were in line to get in, we saw some lightning in the distance. As we got closer to our gate, the lightning got closer to the stadium. Right as we were about to enter Gate 8, we were told to go to Gate 6 since it was covered. Nissan Stadium had enacted their Lighting Advisory, part of their weather crisis communication plan. We were quickly ushered into Gate 6 without our tickets being scanned and huddled in the concourse with 70,000 other concert goers. The staff were more concerned with our safety than the tickets actually being scanned.
Now, to hurry up and wait. I was hoping that this summer storm would pass and we would get to enjoy the concert soon. On all TVs and screens in the concourse and around the stadium, the Lightning Advisory was showing. It was a single slide that told patrons to remain calm, stay in the concourse and listen for instructions from stadium staff regarding the event. So, we waited. It was hot and muggy. There wasn’t a lot of air flow event though we were close to the gate. There were a few people that required medical attention and the stadium staff were ready and prepared, and promptly tended to those in need.
After I connected to the stadium’s free WIFI, I went to the Weather App to check the radar. It did not look good. The second place I went was Twitter to see if there was information from Garth Brooks, Nissan Stadium, or other news outlets, updating us on status of the concert.
Nissan Stadium keep people informed leading up to the concert, during the delay, and after with the final decision to postpone. They did this across all social media platforms, but it was from Twitter that most people received updates. Why is that?
Twitter is best used for direct messages. It is a great announcement platform, so when the stadium needed to update 70,000 people about what was going on, they turned to Twitter. Many individuals get notifications on their phone when tweets are made. This give followers updated information when it happens and answers questions before they are asked. The more a message is retweeted, quoted, commented on, or loved, the more it comes up in the feed.
Nissan Stadium tweet prior to the concert 
Weather Delay tweet 
Nissan Stadium retweet the radar 
Official postponement tweet from Nissan Stadium 
Follow-up tweets from Nissan Stadium pertaining to tickets and new concert date
Twitter was a crucial part of Nissan Stadium’s crisis communication plan. All businesses, and many individuals, have crisis communication plans. This insures that a message is heard in the midst of chaos. And it is not just the chaos of the customers, concert goers, vendors, etc. It is also helps with internal chaos, stress, and anxiety of businesses and their employees. A crisis communication plan is essential for all businesses so that when something unexpected does happen, they are prepared. The use of Twitter, amongst other social media outlets, by Nissan Stadium, was the perfect platform to execute the public facing aspect of their crisis communication plan.
Garth Brooks (and/or his team) retweeted almost everything that Nissan Stadium tweeted, reaching even more people with the updated news about the concert. In the days following, Garth tweeted his StudioG episode, which gave more information about what was going on, along with praise for the way everything was handled. A new concert date was alluded to, but no date was officially given due to scheduling difficulties. You can watch the StudioG episode below.
As a communicator, I could see all the effort that went into notifying the concert goers and the general public about the Garth Brooks Stadium Tour in Nashville. Their social game was on point (especially the use of Twitter) and the staff was well trained as to what to do in a weather crisis. We can learn a lot from Nissan Stadium and their communication plan.
Jeff Fyke 
How much did they pay you to write this since everyone else said it was awful? No concerns about cramming everyone together and covid?
I was not paid to write this, it is my honest observation. Yes, we were crowded in the concourse, but we were protected from the elements. When there was break in the weather and it was safe, the stadium staff released everyone to go home. All those in attendance acknowledged the Covid risk when purchasing tickets. It was required before you could finalize your purchase.