Celebrating 17 Years Seeing George Strait in Clemson

A few months ago news spread like wildfire that George Strait was going to be headlining a concert at Clemson and the stars aligned. David and I have always wanted to see the the king of country perform and when he popped up 45 minutes from our home ON our anniversary, it was decided- we had to go!

We debated should it be just the two of us or the whole family and ultimately decided it would be pretty special for us all to go. I set my calendar to alert me when tickets went on sale then hovered over the get tickets button on October 27 to get in the queue as quickly as possible.

I felt like I was pretty fast on the button so I was surprised I was number 1,575 in line. With my heart racing and palms sweating (I take my responsibility of securing good seats seriously) I watched the queue tick down until it was my turn for tickets. Once into the system they were disappearing fast so I was grateful I had a plan and grabbed four lower level and checked out ASAP.

Luckily David and I had talked ahead of time to discuss the price of tickets so it wasn’t a complete shock, but as someone who doesn’t attend a lot of events, it always catches me off guard just how pricy these experiences can be.

Out of pure curiosity I logged back in an hour later to see if the event was sold out and my jaw hit the floor when I saw that ticket sales were set up with dynamic pricing and the seats I had paid for an hour earlier had now quadrupled in price. I had no idea concerts utilized dynamic pricing and I suddenly felt a little better about the amount we had paid. Our price was now the price of the nosebleeds. Truly, I was shocked.

Time ticked by as it does and soon enough May 2 arrived and it was concert day! The concert started at 6:00 and we knew we wanted to get there a little early to wander campus, so we headed out around 12:30.

Traffic was building but not terrible when we arrived and we got a parking spot at a church .7 miles from the stadium for $20 and called it a win. We set up a mini tailgate for a few to enjoy some snacks and drinks and toss a football before decided to head towards campus.

It was a beautiful day and the streets were buzzing with energy. People in cowboy hats and boots were everywhere you looked. I started the exploration in my boots, but opted halfway into exploring to go back to the truck for my sneakers instead. A very good choice.

We had such a fun time people watching, wandering campus, and enjoying the beautiful day that soon enough it was time to head to the concert!

The weather was ideal for an outdoor concert. Threats of rain had circulated prior to the day but besides a few sprinkles during the opening act, temperatures stayed around 60 degrees and the skies were clear. Absolutely beautiful weather!

We knew we had come to see King George so we were happily caught off guard at the stellar performance put on by Cody Johnson. The man has true talent and a natural charisma with the crowd. He did his job impressively well, getting everyone hyped, and singing some bangers himself. Did I tear up during Dirt Cheap like I always do? Of course. In fact when he started playing it Hailey looked at me and said “oh no, mom, here it comes.” Ha 🙂

Between Cody and the main act we went for food and drinks. We were surprised at how ill prepared they were for the crowd considering that Clemson is no stranger to large football game crowds. The lines were all long (30-45 minutes), they ran out of pizza before George even came on, and the only food available was popcorn and chips. No big deal, of course, but just surprising and totally blew my plan to have us all eat at the concert. Whoops.

We chowed down instead on popcorns, M&Ms, Coke, and seltzers. Kaitlyn was on cloud nine. But just a heads up for any friends heading there for Morgan Wallen this summer.

Finally, it was time, and the crowd roared as George Strait made his way to the stage (which rotated fully giving everyone a head on view of the music all night, which was pretty cool).

George.

Wow.

I really don’t even know where to begin.

First of all the man makes 73 look darn good. But really, wow, you can tell he’s just a natural, born to sing these songs for a crowd. He was phenomenal.

We sang along and danced along with the rest of the 90,000+ people, soaking up every minute of the 2 hours of George. He had a great blend of songs to sing, which was probably hard to curate based on how many hits he has. My favorites included Troubadour, of course, Check Yes or No, How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls, and Run, but honestly it’s easy to forget just how many amazing songs he sings and we enjoyed them all.

After he left the stage the crowd chanted one more song and he returned for an encore of a few more songs, finally ending it appropriately with The Cowboy Rides Away.

What a night!

It was absolutely incredible and I don’t even mind the fact that it took hours to get out of there because of the gridlocked traffic (easy for me to say, as I was nodding off in the car while David handled it, but just another heads up for any Morgan Wallen concert goers).

We got home around 2:00 AM with tired bodies but very happy hearts. I’m so glad we got to share this experience as a family. King George can still claim the throne of country music; a living legend indeed.

Oh, and happy 17 years to my boo thing, of course. Don’t know how I got so lucky to get to do life with him, but I don’t take a minute of it for granted. <3