Edited this morning 17/9

I feel for all of you who attempted today’s public release & didn’t get through.  I’ve gotta say I’ve never encountered such difficulty getting a ticket to a concert and I’ve seen some pretty big acts over the years.  But I’m not giving up for the North’s Fans.  

I will add (& I wish I thought of this for my email yesterday) that it is our NRL season in Aust and ALL his venues for the Aust tour are arenas, but surely there’s a way around that!? I’ve seen how Suncorp put protective flooring on the field.  We can’t not host acts for that whole period of time… 

Frontier Touring, Chris Kappy - if you’re reading this please learn from this experience and remember for the next tour - avoid footy season! - book those STADIUMS - you will clearly fill every seat.

Ticketetk - I am not a robot!! I only wanted 3tix - how do people get 8 and then go on to scalp the true fans???? As much as you love your artist peeps, I never buy from these unreliable vultures- they just profit even more off our love for our artists & they will continue to do so if we throw our hard earned money at them. 

Anyway rant over…..

Today’s email attempt to Luke’s Manager, Bootleggers Fanclub, Frontier Touring and Chugg Entertainment

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Hello

I would like to draw your attention to a petition that I started one week ago to “Bring Luke 2 Townsville”.

Bear in mind I only have 255 Facebook friends and a very small number of Instagram followers @cfoscreative

At the time of writing this email I have gained 7300 signatures, from fans in the Greater North Queensland Region and beyond.  The response has been nothing short of incredible.

It is my understanding that “Townsville” tried to negotiate a visit to Queensland Country Bank Stadium with Luke and/or his Management, however he declined to perform as it is a stadium not an arena.

I do understand the hesitation at performing in an “outdoors” venue - I can only assume you’re worried about the elements?  If so.. the weather in Townsville is beautiful!  It's cool, while sunny and rarely do we get any sort of inclement weather at this time of year (August/September).  In fact residents from NSW & VIC literally fly north for the winter to escape the unpleasant weather south.

Based on the overwhelming response to ticket sales and the awful amount of disappointed fans, left in the wake of trying and failing to gain access to Ticketek, I would think it would be hard to ignore the huge call out for more concerts, particularly in bigger venues to accomodate the fans.  Luke would have easily packed Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

Clearly Luke’s fan base in Australia was grossly underestimated.

Townsville is central to a HUGE catchment area of rural communities.  The residents of these areas cannot afford the added cost of flights and accommodation to see their favourite artists live in concert.  We are talking about an area south to Rockhampton, west to Mount Isa and north to Cooktown.  These towns and every other in between is no more than a day’s drive.  People who are more than willing to drive to Townsville for a concert.

These rural residents are the true country music fans, which begs the question - why not bring a country music artist to the country?

Townsville is a beautiful city with a beautiful new venue that is begging to be utilised for acts like Luke Combs.  I can assure you our venue and city is much nicer than Willowbank Raceway, where CMC Rocks Qld is currently being hosted and where Luke has previously performed.

Bear in mind we do also have the Townsville Entertainment Centre - yes it is a smaller (enclosed) venue with only approx 5000 seats but I can assure you, Luke would fill it twice over!  

People who have missed out on concerts in the major cities will fly to Townsville.   They do it for their Rugby League, they’ll do it for their favourite artist.  This is why I have no doubt Luke would fill Queensland Country Bank Stadium.   We have sell out crowds for football - we will have a sell out crowd/s for Luke.

I have tried my hardest to get noticed by Luke Combs, Chris Kappy, Make Wake Artists, Frontier Touring, Chugg Entertainment via Facebook and Instagram direct messaging but I have had no luck.  I’ve even started tagging Tim McGraw in posts in the hope he will see them and put in a good word for Townsville, having performed here at Reid Park in 2010. 

I have relentlessly posted reels, hash tagged, tagged, direct messaged and emailed.  That’s how passionate I am about my live music and my love for our region.

I have raised the attention of two local radio stations Star106.3 and ABC Nth Qld who have been supportive of my efforts for Luke’s fans and Townsville as a city.  The interview with ABC is available on my Facebook page.

Please take a moment to look at your inboxes, please reconsider Townsville.  We are the North and we are WORTHY.

Luke - your fans are calling you!!

Be sure to visit https://www.change.org/bringluke2townsville see the numbers and read the comments for yourself.

Take a look at #bringluke2townsville

I am hopeful my email will be acknowledged by someone who can speak on behalf of the decision maker.

At the very least if we cannot make it happen this time - please remember us for your next visit to Australia.

Kindest regards

Carmel Foster