FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF)- The legendary Billy Bob’s Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards is opening it’s doors again. TABC has allowed the Honky Tonk venue to open because it meets the criteria: food and concert tickets add up to 60% of the venue’s sales.
Billy Bob’s General Manager Marty Travis said the TABC has given them a certificate to operate as a restaurant.
“We have a full restaurant but ours just happens to be in a really big building which means we have a concert hall, a retail store and we have pool tables,” said Travis.
Travis said they plan to take social distancing and all of the safety requirements for visitors very seriously. He said they bought a $20,000 thermal camera for contact-less temperature checks for everyone who enters. Travis said they also have a dedicated cleaning crew to sanitize all high touch point areas and are requiring guests to wear a mask while walking around.
“We feel good about what we are doing, we have restricted capacity to about 1,200 people. We feel like we can do that comfortably, safely and distanced…our capacity is usually 6,000,” he said.
Not only will Billy Bob’s operate at 20% capacity, he said they are limiting the number of people on the dance floor to 30 people at a time.
“We are going to be strict and diligent but we are going to have fun at the same time,” said Travis. “Billy Bobs has one shot at this, we’ve been closed down for a while and TABC has been very helpful, trying to find a way to get our industry back open.”
Management is still working on a few details but have every intention of opening BBT and the Honky Tonk Kitchen sometime between August 12th-14th.
Travis said they’re also planning to host concerts. “I’ve kept up with all of our shows and had to cancel what we needed to but I just hope that the rest of the world will follow the same safety protocols that we are following,” he said.
Tickets for most of these shows will go on sale this Friday, August 7 at 10AM:
-Friday, August 14 – The Bellamy Brothers (10 PM)
-Saturday, August 15 – Flatland Cavalry (10 PM)
-Friday, August 21 – Tracy Byrd (10 PM)
-Saturday, August 22 – Casey Donahew (10 PM)
-Sunday, August 23 – Chad Prather (8 PM)
-Friday, August 28 – TBA
-Sunday, August 29 – Josh Abbott Band (10 PM)
These upcoming concerts will be limited to 1,200 tickets; however, capacities could change after the first weekend of shows.Tickets will include 1,000 socially distanced Reserved Seats and 200 socially distanced General Admission.
Learn more about Billy Bob’s safety and sanitation processes here.
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