“Tour Dates For 2019… What Is Taking So Long?”

Our Thoughts  On Tour Dates For 2019 

Every year there is that horrible time between the last show of the tour in August to when the next tour will get announced for the following summer. This leaves so many “unknowns” such as… “When will tickets go on sale?” “Will he do a full tour?” “What cities will he go to?” “What will the name of the tour be?” Of course, the biggest question is always “Will Kenny tour at all?” The No Shoes Nation plan their summers around the decisions Kenny and his team make for a tour. It is so hard to make any plans when we simply don’t know anything. Well, we do know a few things and we decided to put togther what we do know! Here ya go!

1. Clint Higham, Kenny’s Manager was quoted in October of 2018 in an interview with Pollstar saying… “Next year, we’re not going to do stadiums,”  We’re going to preserve that and not saturate the market – kind of give it a break.” 
2. Does “no stadiums” mean no tour? We don’t think so. No Gillette? A possible Gillette show, due to hotel prices at Patriot Place. They are still jacked up during the weekend that Kenny would normally play at the end of August. Just speculation of course.
3. Kenny is performing at Tortuga Music Festival April 14th. So, does this mean he is doing just festivals?We don’t think so, it doesnt look like it. Fact is, many of the big festivals have already announced their big headliners. Luke Bryan will be headlining Country Fest 2019 in Wisconsin. Taste of Country’s big festival in Hunter, NY has Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts headlining. Country Thunder Florida has Luke Bryan, Toby Keith and Luke Combs. In Colorado, Country Jam has Luke Bryan, Little Big Town and Sam Hunt. Stagecoach in California has Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean and The Country Fest in Ohio has Chris Young, Brantley Gilbert and Thomas Rhett. 
4. We all know Kenny loves to perform outdoors. So, maybe an amphitheater tour? Awesome yes, but then you have to factor in the horrible “Megaticket”. What is a megaticket?  Megaticket is a five-show country music package featuring the summer’s biggest country concerts at many participating Live Nation Ampitheaters. Purchasing one megaticket gives you access to all five concerts in the package at a specific venue. These megatickets get released first before the artists individual tickets, usually sometime in January or February. Unfortunatley they have to organize all 5 artists and their tour schedules first and then they can announce the dates. That causes individual artists that are part of the megaticket to have to hold off on announcing their own full tour schedules. 
5. Tour name? Well, from what we have been told, that is usually decided near the end of the previous tour. Then comes the planning of the tour graphics and sponsors during the fall and winter. That is usually what we would get from Kenny camp first, then would come the tour dates. 
6. No Shoes Radio… Kenny loves to announce his tour details there first. It is a good idea to have a membership on Sirius XM and listen as much as you can! We will usually get some sort of post on all the offical Kenny Chesney social media outlets, telling us to tune into NSR to get more details on an upcoming tour. So far they did post this, on October 17th on the NSR FB page…”We’re coming back to the Tortuga Music Festival in 2019! Get your passes starting October 26 at 10 am ET. Listen for details and MORE news soon on NSR!” Key word being “MORE”. This could mean since Tortuga has been announced they are going to be announcing more about Tortuga or it could mean more about a tour in general. It can be read both ways! Yes… Frustrating!
7. So, do Connie and Michelle know anything about a tour name or dates? NO ,we do not. Kenny Camp is very quiet right now. We will not reach out to them, they deserve the time off and honestly they will e-mail us with a press release when they offically have the information. We check our e-mail throughout the day. We will get it to you very quick once it comes out!  

Can we plan our summer vacations, trips and adventures yet? That’s up to the No Shoes Nation. Be careful if you plan on sticking a Kenny Chesney show in there… but have a back up plan if he decides to come visit your city after you make other plans. Realistically it “could” be January or Februray for all the tour dates to be announced. We certainly hope not, but just wanted to prepare you all just in case!

Connie & Michelle