LEXINGTON, Ky. — Rupp Arena will be hosting an acoustic concert on Friday, the first since the pandemic began. The show, headlined by Brantley Gilbert, will showcase seven different country artists and bring some normalcy to the downtown Lexington area.

Carl Hall, Director of Arena Management said Kentuckians and artists are excited to come together and enjoy music in a safe way.

Hall said the arena has made many changes to their space. As of right now, they are only allowing for 15% of their capacity which is giving them 2,800 tickets to sell.

The concert tickets are being sold in pairs of two or four, making sure guests are socially distancing and keeping from spreading the virus.

In addition to the COVID-19 procedures, only mobile tickets will be accepted and the arena staff is now enforcing a clear bag policy. This is to help limit the amount of contact the guests have with the arena staff members. 

“You must wear face masks to gain entry and remain inside. So face masks are mandatory to come through a diverse set of doors. We're going to do health screening. We asked them questions, venue like football games basketball games same typical things, how are you feeling, how's the family. Part of it is just social interaction a little bit but a lot of it is to find out to make sure that you feel good, you're not running a fever, you don't have a cold, any of the normal things like that," Hall said.

Being in the live entertainment industry, Hall says the arena has lost thousands of dollars due to the pandemic. Being able to bring a little bit of normalcy back will financially help both the arena and downtown Lexington in a positive way. 

“We are in live entertainment and live entertainment has basically been shut down for eight or nine months we have lost more than 50% of our staff permanently. The 50% of remaining, you know is working partial weeks and doing every thing's just trying to keep the corporation afloat just like all other live entertainment," Hall said.

The Acoustic Concert will be at Rupp Arena on Jan. 15, 2020. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.