Music

Garth Brooks cancels Gillette Stadium concert over COVID concerns

"Watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must to my part."

Garth Brooks has postponed his October 9 Gillette Stadium concert. Shannon Finney

August 18, 2021

Canceled Concerts

Garth Brooks has canceled his planned Gillette Stadium concert this fall due to COVID-19 concerns, only six weeks after the country star initially announced he would be coming to Foxborough.

Brooks announced on his website that the approximately 350,000 fans who were expected to attend one of his next five shows would all receive refunds, including ticket-holders for his Saturday, Oct. 9, show at Gillette.

Brooks’s Foxborough concert would have been his first-ever visit to the home of the Patriots and his first New England concert in six years.

“In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us,” Brooks said in a statement. “Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part.”

According to the press release, Ticketmaster will automatically issue refunds to the original method of payment used at time of purchase for Brooks’s Gillette show, as well as scheduled dates in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Nashville.

Brooks said he was “sincerely hoping” that he would be back on tour before the end of 2021, but a tour spokesperson said the team would continue to monitor the impacts of the virus before making a decision, with a rescheduled show likely to come in 2022.

Brooks isn’t the only country megastar forced to delay a Gillette concert this year due to COVID-19 concerns: In March, Kenny Chesney announced that his already-delayed Chillaxification Tour, which was scheduled to culminate at Gillette Stadium on Aug. 27 and 28, 2021, would be delayed until 2022.