‘Insane’: This concert was Ford Idaho Center’s third largest outdoor show ever
When Dierks Bentley announced that he was returning to the Boise area, everyone knew it would be big.
But maybe not this big.
The country singer drew one of the largest crowds in Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater history when he performed Saturday night.
The drop count — or number of bodies through the gates — was 10,216. That’s the amphitheater’s third biggest attendance ever, said Creston Thornton, president of promoter Live Nation’s mountain region.
“Almost 11,000 people. Insane,” he said. “People had an amazing time.”
Two other country stars have drawn even more enormous crowds — but only barely. With an estimated 10,500 in 1999, Shania Twain owns the unofficial record, Thornton said. Kenny Chesney lured 10,315 people in 2018.
Bentley’s gig at the Idaho Center was a far cry from 2003, when he performed as a rising sensation for hundreds of fans at a Garden City bar called the Silver Spur Saloon (previously Shorty’s, now Ironwood Social).
With temperatures at a tolerable 90ish degrees, Bentley did about a two-hour set in Nampa, even bringing opening acts Parker McCollum and Riley Green on stage to play music with him.
With the Idaho crowd flying high, he broke out his smash “Drunk on a Plane” during the first encore.
He returned for a second encore with his wig-wearing parody band, Hot Country Knights.
“People were going nuts,” Thornton said. “It was awesome.”
Despite it being August, Bentley’s show helped kick off an outdoor concert schedule that’s just starting to shift into gear.
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats will headline a show Wednesday at Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater, when temperatures are expected to be autumn-like.
During the rest of the season, at least one more band could flirt with record-book numbers. Pop act the Jonas Brothers definitely should be huge Sept. 2, although the audience might not quite reach Bentley’s crowd size.
“It was massive,” Thornton said.
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 12:45 PM.