Kenny Chesney Promises A Heavy Trip On His Summer Stadium Tour

Select Artists Associates – Kenny Chesney
Chase Field, Phoenix, Ariz.

When Kenny Chesney says he is taking a “Heavy Trip Around The Sun,” he’s not kidding. When his summer tour kicks off April 21 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., he’ll be bringing along hundreds of tons of staging and equipment to transform stadiums and amphitheaters across North America into gigantic party zones for the No Shoes Nation.

How heavy? The stage alone weighs 360,000 pounds. The production requires 28 trucks, 19 buses, 60,000 to 80,000 square feet of flooring to protect stadium fields and requires a traveling staff of 133 plus hundreds more in local crews to build and strike every show.

Chesney promises a visual experience for fans like no other and the sound will be massive, too. For audio technophiles, the configuration includes “a new GSL Box…two stripes – 24 boxes – on each side of the stage, plus 24 V8s hung from the upper decks and 67 auxiliary cabinets,” according to a Team Chesney press release..

The configuration can produce 110 decibels, capable of reaching the crow’s nest seats in the far upper reaches of the largest stadiums, and was recently used for a festival in New Orleans featuring Bassnectar. “The low end had enough intensity to set off all the car alarms in the parking lot 400-500 feet away,” the statement boasts.

“We won’t drive the system at those levels,” Chesney says in a statement, “but it’s nice to know it can create that kind of sonic intensity. For us, it was really about people being able to hear the words, because those songs are important to them – and they deserve that.”

The fans are going to get an eyeful, too. The production includes a 48- by 36-foot video wall and is the largest of Chesney’s already impressive touring career. He’ll carry 404 lighting fixtures, some singles and some holding 72 LED flares.

“The idea is nobody who comes to the show should ever think about what it takes to make this happen,” Chesney says. “But we’ve been having tech rehearsals separate from band rehearsals, building video for the screens, streamlining the production in ways that create less of an environmental footprint while still having a show that rocks.”

Chesney summer tours are among the most highly anticipated outings in recent years. Once again, he’ll have support from Old Dominion, with Thomas Rhett and Brandon Lay joining the party on select dates.

By the time his Heavy Trip Around The Sun ends, he will have performed in 156 stadiums across the course of his career. He’s already reported 865 shows to Pollstar in which he’s moved just shy of 14.9 million tickets. And he will likely cross the $1 billion in gross sales mark with his Raymond James Stadium tour opener..

“We just did our last rehearsal. We’ve got some new songs, old songs people haven’t heard – and a whole lot of the songs everybody comes for,” Chesney says. “There’s nothing like the sound of the No Shoes Nation when they’re on fire … and I can’t wait for Tampa.”