Late Tuesday afternoon and into the evening, ground coverings were laid out on the field at Beaver Stadium and by Thursday a first in the venue’s 57-year history had occurred.
A massive stage sat in the north end zone.
That stage — 110 feet wide including its two end wings, 40 feet deep and with a frame stretching about 60 feet high — is prelude to another first: Saturday’s Happy Valley Jam, the Beaver Stadium’s inaugural concert.
‘This is awesome. The first time ever. How can you beat that?’ said Gary DeWaard, president and CEO of Iowa-based Basis Entertainment, the promoter and coordinator for the show. ‘It’s never happened before and to be a part of that, it’s hard to explain, but it’s really cool.’
Saturday’s concert will feature a lineup of country music performers, headlined by superstar Blake Shelton, who is scheduled to take that stage at 9:30 p.m. The show opens at 4 p.m. with Adley Stump, who will be followed by David Ray, Big & Rich and Chris Young before Shelton plays under the lights.
With the first concert comes the process of learning the logistical needs of setting up for a big concert. Beaver Stadium’s entry points proved to be the biggest challenge, though with the stage in place and crews working on production aspects Thursday, those challenges were obviously met.
‘Here specifically the load in is challenging because of the tunnel access and the height restrictions. Then the load-in is on the opposite side of where the stage is, so there’s the distance. It’s a lot of equipment That makes it more challenging just from the timing standpoint. With the grass field you want to be careful, and the least amount of time being on the grass is the best option.’
Flooring to move the industrial equipment was in place on the field, and Thursday night a different type of covering for foot traffic will be put down.
About 70 people have been working on site since Wednesday for various aspects of the production and that will ramp up heading into Saturday, DeWaard said.
It’s not the first college stadium go-round for Basis and DeWaard. They put on the first ever concert in Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium last year, an eight-hour benefit headlined by Shelton, and followed that up with another Shelton-starring lineup at Florida State’s Doak Campbell Stadium.
‘They’re all a little different,’ DeWaard said. ‘This has been really exciting just from the standpoint of the excitement of athletics and the fan base, the expectation on the attendance.’
DeWaard didn’t give an estimate on ticket sales, but said it will be in the tens of thousands.
Penn State Deputy Athletic Director Phil Esten said earlier this week the university was hoping to see around 30,000 attendees or more.
‘I don’t know what the final number is going to be, but it’s going to be a big crowd,’ DeWaard said Thursday. ‘It’s already going to be a success, just based on the presales. More fans are still buying tickets’
Learning that concert ticket sales follow a different rhythm than athletics was one of the lessons for Penn State Athletics, Esten said.
‘For us probably one of the biggest learning processes has been the ebb and flow of ticket sales and interest,’ he explained. ‘There was a great deal of interest when we first announced it last fall and there’s been a lot of positive energy and chatter in the past couple of weeks.’
In general, it’s been a lot of learning about the concert industry for the athletic department, Esten said.
But they weren’t coming into it cold, either. The department is no stranger to managing big events, and they had some help from staff who work regularly with concert events at the stadium’s neighbor on Curtin Road.
‘We do football games all the time. We host, as Coach [James] Franklin calls it, family reunions, of 100,000 people seven weekends a year. So we have that piece of it down,’ Esten said. ‘The Bryce Jordan Center does it all the time and they’ve been very helpful for us in working through some of these things.’
Esten added that Happy Valley Jam is an opportunity to generate funds that can be reinvested in Penn State student-athletes, while at the same time providing a new entertainment opportunity for the broader community.
‘Beaver Stadium is something that’s very special to everybody in this community,’ he said. ‘Certainly a lot of memories have been created in Beaver Stadium and we’re looking forward to creating even more memories for those that come on Saturday.’
See photos of the stage set up in the gallery below.
