Field of Dreams movie site holding its first big concert weekend

The Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville is hosting its first ever concert weekend with country singer Tim McGraw on Saturday and the rock group Nickelback headlining Sunday night.

Travel Dubuque is handling the event and spokesman John Sutter says they first started talking about it two years ago and is turning out very well. “We’ve had incredible response to it. I mean, Tim McGraw sold out 20,000 tickets. And the Nickelback Day Sunday, we’ve sold over 13,000 tickets, so that’s 53,000 people who think, ‘yeah, this is a good idea. I want to go to that’,” he says.

The event will have other concerts throughout the two days leading to the headliners. “It’s kind of a festival atmosphere, opening the gates at 11 a.m., parking all around the movie site across the across Lansing Road and down into our other hayfields. A lot of the same places where we parked people from Major League Baseball inside the concert area. Plenty of food and drink to be had.” Sutter says.

The site has hosted two Major League Baseball games, and says they learned a few things about accommodating large crowds and made some updates. “Bringing high speed cable, or fiber network to the site. City water, sewer, power upgrades to our site. They’ve brought in a temporary cell phone tower so that everyone will have access to connectivity on site as well. While they’re here enjoying the show,” Sutter says. He says they also learned how to handle traffic for big events.

Sutter says McGraw is excited for the concert as it falls on his dad’s birthday. “And his dad, of course, Tug McGraw was a Major League Baseball player, so it’s a really a remarkable fit for, you know, a dad who was a baseball player and his son coming to play at Field of Dreams on his birthday,” he says.

Sutter says they hope the concert weekend will be an annual event.

(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)