» Garth Weekend Festivities in Hamilton!

Recipe for an awesome party? Cold beer, great music, free admission. Hell yeah! Why wouldn’t you?

March 24-27 2016 marked the much anticipated return of Garth Brooks to Ontario. After a 19 year absence, arguably one of the biggest names in country music history kicked off the Canadian portion of his world tour in one of his favourite venues, First Ontario Place in Hamilton, Ontario. And the hype surrounding this weekend has been building literally for months. There were many contests held in the music and radio industry for show tickets, meet and greet opportunities and much more as fans clamoured to enjoy a piece of these festivities. Tickets for the five shows in four days were sold in minutes. At Sound Check Entertainment, we love a good party, so we headed to the Molson Canadian Studio at Hamilton Place on Friday and Saturday to take in the pre-show kickoff parties.

Core Entertainment partnered up with KX Country Radio and Coors Banquet to put on some awesome, FREE kickoff tailgate parties at the Studio. On Thursday and Friday Barrie, Ontario’s Kansas Stone took the stage to fire up fans and get them primed and ready for attending the Garth Brooks show just two blocks over at First Ontario Centre. The boys played great sets and included some of their newest material, some of which was just recently recorded and is soon to be released. They have a slick sound and some great crowd interaction and certainly got everyone’s attention with their Whiskey and Wine, and also a little bit of Chris Stapleton done Kansas Stone style. The band has been really gaining some traction and we are looking forward to seeing more of them soon!

Brian Vain of Kansas Stone performs at the Coors Banquet Garth Pre-show Tailgate Party. Photo: Scott Burns

Matt Davey of Kansas Stone performs at the Coors Banquet Garth Brooks Pre-show Tailgate Party. Photo: Scott Burns

On Saturday and Sunday, fans were treated to the lovely, amazingly talented CMAO award winning Leah Daniels. Leah performed an acoustic set with Will Hebbes, her guitarist with impressive sets of music. Leah’s vocal abilities were front and center as she took us through both up-tempo and softer songs that also included a phenomenal version of AC/DC’s Shook Me All Night Long (yes, you read that right!) and a little later pulled off some of the best yodelling I’ve heard. That really brought some cheers. I could listen to her sing all day long.

Leah Daniels performs at the Coors Banquet Garth Brooks Pre-show Tailgate Party. Photo: Scott Burns

Leah Daniels and Will Hebbes perform at the Coors Banquet Garth Brooks Pre-show Tailgate Party. Photo: Scott Burns

What more could you ask for? You are brought so close to the artists in an intimate setting, listening to kick ass country music, drinking cold Coors beer, entered into raffles for greats music tickets and swag, hosted/emceed by KX Country and all for free admission. Seriously? I love events like this. Well done Core Entertainment. The perfect way to get revved up for more great music and entertainment done Garth Brooks style as the evening progressed.