The Limestone County Buc-ee’s became an unlikely venue for one of the biggest concerts in history of the city of Athens as country superstar Keith Urban surprised the masses with a free pop-up concert Friday night.
On a regular day, the Buc-ee’s in Athens can draw thousands of people who have traveled from all around the South to experience the popular barbecue and bathrooms. That fact remained the same on Friday, Aug. 16, but one of those many travelers happened to be the four-time Grammy winner, who decided to perform on a small stage in the parking lot of the local gas station.
“It’s been rumored off and on all day, but when I got a call from his manager earlier this morning I knew we were in for a great event,” Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks told The News Courier Friday, prior to the concert. “We’ve been scrambling to help them out all day. We want to make sure we can accommodate all the people who are going to show up for this.”
Urban was in awe of the immense turnout, as he said during the concert that he only expected a couple hundred people to show up — possibly due to the threat of severe weather Friday evening or the four-hour window between the announcement and showtime.
Still, the word of the show went viral on social media and droves of people filled into the parking lot next to the Buc-ee’s, eager to witness Urban and his band perform.
“I didn’t know about it until I saw a post about it on Facebook,” George Clemons, a fan of both Buc-ee’s and Urban, said as he waited for the concert to begin. “It’s definitely pretty random, but it’s also pretty awesome. It doesn’t really feel real, like who knows if this will ever happen again.”
As hundreds of fans began to gather around the makeshift stage around 4:30 p.m., they bought lawn chairs, food and drinks from Buc-ee’s to hold them over during the long wait. Alan Penney and his family were some of those fans, and like many other fans, they traveled from the Huntsville area to take part in the moment.
“We were all really surprised when we found out, but after he wore an Athens Buc-ee’s shirt at a previous concert I always thought it would be a good idea,” Penney said. “We come to Buc-ee’s all the time and we’ve always enjoyed it, but this is going to be a special memory for me and my family.”
According to Athens Police Chief Anthony Pressnell, nearly 6,000 people were estimated to have attended the surprise show Friday night. The concert, which lasted for close to two-hours, featured a catalog of Urban’s hit songs, and a special rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama.”
“We got a call on Thursday night that something was going to go on at Buc-ee’s Friday. Now, we weren’t sure what, but we knew it would be big,” Pressnell told The News Courier. “Friday morning is when we really started to figure it all out, but we didn’t know how many people were going to show up. Our guys did a great job handling the huge crowd and outside of planning where everyone was going to park, it went off without a hitch.”
Pressnell personally thanked Buc-ee’s and their employees for their help in the day’s action, including having extra workers come out to assist in crowd and traffic control.
“We really didn’t have any problems and that’s a miracle with as many people that were there,” Pressnell said. “We had people from all over show up, and it went so well, who knows maybe we’ll do it again someday.”