MIAMI COUNTY, Kan. — Country music star Luke Bryan is coming to rural Kansas on Thursday as part of his Farm Tour 2019.
The concert will take place at MC Farms, 13702 W 255th Street in rural Miami County, an anticipation has been growing for months since Bryan announced the concert in late May.
"I’m excited," Jodi Clearwater said. "It’s nice to just being able to go out in the middle of nowhere and have fun."
The unique setting well off the beaten path is part of the allure of the Farm Tour for Bryan's fans.
"The outside is wonderful." Vicki Vohs said. "It is. You sit back and you enjoy it."
But the rural setting also creates logistical challenges as thousands of fans will have to travel in and out of the rural event venue via two-way country roads.
The Miami County Sheriff's Office has urged concert-goers to take U.S. 169 to West 255th Street eastbound, over to Somerset Road to West 247th Street, over to Pflumm Road and back down to West 255th Street.
The other option is to take U.S. 69 to West 247th Street westbound to Pflumm Road and down to West 255th Street.
"Our anticipation is to keep as much traffic off the roadway and in here, and once they get in here then we can deal with them as they’re in the parking area," Miami County Sheriff Capt. Matthew Kelly said.
Side roads will be closed to traffic and signs will be posted.
As many as 60 law enforcement personnel will be at the event.
There also will be "officers outside the venue as well that will be roaming around monitoring illegal parking, suspicious activity trespassing, that kind of thing," Kelly said.
It's that kind of activity that worries some neighbors.
"We’ve had problems here on the airpark (Chiles Airpark)," Gary Fisher, who lives adjacent to MC Farms, said. "It’s such a wide-open space that people have driven down the road, they’ve driven over the top of the mailboxes, torn up the runway."
With nearly 250 acres of land, farm managers hope the thousands of visitors treat it with respect.
"We’ve kind of been promised that the land will be returned to us back how it was previously and so that’s kind of our hopes," Raelynn Rockwell, who manages MC Farms, said.
The hope is that the Farm Tour will offer a one-of-a-kind experience fans will remember for years.
"Luke, I’d love to meet you," Vohs said. "I would. I’d probably fall over, but I’d love to meet you."
Fans going to the concert are advised that MC Farms will open for parking at 2 p.m. and gates to the concert venue will open at 5 p.m.
Around 12,000 fans have purchased tickets, but there are more tickets available on Bryan's website.
