Nearly 60,000 tickets had been sold by Thursday for Luke Combs’ stop Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, where the country star is bringing the third show on his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour. The concert is set for April 11, and Iowa State Athletics is warning fans to plan ahead for traffic, parking and the chance of a few showers around the time gates open.
That crowd is headed to an open-air stadium, not an enclosed arena, and Jack Trice offers only limited indoor refuge in restrooms and concession areas. The scale alone makes this a major event for Ames, but the logistics matter just as much: lots open at noon, field-level ticket holders are being sent through Gate 1 on the north side, and gates are spread across the north, east and south sides of the stadium.
Combs’ Ames date is the third stop on the tour, and he is bringing Jake Worthington, Thelma & James, Ty Myers and Dierks Bentley as opening acts. The venue is also running under standard event rules that will shape how fast people move once they arrive. All tickets are mobile, fans are being told to download them to a mobile wallet before reaching the stadium, and Jack Trice is a fully cashless venue, with credit cards, debit cards and mobile pay accepted for parking, concessions and merchandise.
The road setup around the stadium is doing as much to define the day as the show itself. Work is underway on a bridge replacement project on Highway 30 in Ames, the eastbound exit ramp to Dayton Avenue is closed, and the on-ramp from northbound Duff Avenue or U.S. 69 to eastbound Highway 30 is also shut. After the concert, there will be no access to eastbound Highway 30 from Dayton Avenue, and drivers will be rerouted north to East 13th Street to I-35.
Iowa State Athletics said CyRide will adjust some Saturday routes to account for closures and heavy traffic, while rideshare users are being pushed to the area around C.Y. Stephens Auditorium for pickup and drop-off. Rideshare vehicles are not allowed in parking areas and will not be allowed to stop traffic for drop-offs or pickups. Drivers in lots should expect movement too: cars staged or parked near the entrance of each lot may be asked to move at any time before the scheduled opening, and once lots open, vehicles will be directed to an available spot in the parking zone they bought. RV Village parking is also available for purchase.
For fans carrying bags, the rules are strict. Iowa State Athletics has a clear bag policy for all ticketed events, and the bags may be plastic, vinyl or PVC totes no bigger than 12 inches tall, six inches wide and 12 inches long. The reason for all the advance planning is simple: Combs is drawing a near-stadium full of people to a venue where weather, road construction and event rules can all slow the day down. The show still goes on, but getting in and out of Ames will take as much attention as the music.
