Country singer Luke Combs had just started his second of two sold-out nights at the Maine Savings Amphitheater in Bangor on Saturday when he made the call to stop the show due to vocal troubles that had plagued him all weekend.
Instead of just calling it quits and heading back to his hotel, however, Combs announced on stage that he would refund all the tickets for his Saturday night show for all 15,000-plus attendees.
As he reportedly told the audience that night, he knows that a concert experience costs much more than just tickets — there’s gas, food, hotels, parking, child care and much more that goes into it, and he acknowledged that for many concert-goers, it’s a significant financial commitment.
Combs also surprised some young fans the night before at his Friday concert who held up signs letting him know just how hard they’d worked to be able to afford their tickets.
Bo Fenderson and Tanner Hale, New Hampshire residents who were at the concert with the rest of their family, made signs saying that they made $100 stacking five cords of wood so they could afford tickets to the show. It was also Fenderson’s 12th birthday on the day of the concert.
Combs invited the family backstage and gave the boys $140 out of his wallet, and took photos with them all, according to NewsCenter.
Combs’ back-to-back concerts were part of three nights of shows in Bangor, which wrapped up on Sunday with a concert from Aerosmith. It was the legendary rock band’s first concert in nearly four years.
The Waterfront Concerts season continues next weekend with country singer Jason Aldean on Saturday and Sting on Sunday, and wraps up the following week, with Five Finger Death Punch and Megadeth on Sept. 17, REO Speedwagon and Styx on Sept. 18, and Stevie Nicks on Sept. 22.
