Monster Jam brings touring events roaring back to Columbia’s arena after COVID limbo
Things have been pretty quiet at University of South Carolina’s Colonial Life Arena for the last year. But it’s about to get a lot louder, specifically through the roar of engines.
The arena on Columbia’s Lincoln Street is set to host Monster Jam April 9-11. The monster truck show will be the first big entertainment event the arena has hosted in a year, as many indoor concerts and shows in Columbia and across the nation have been sidelined because of the coronavirus pandemic.
While it has hosted USC men’s and women’s basketball, Colonial Life Arena’s schedule in the last year has been empty when it comes to other entertainment offerings. But after that yearlong pause in events, and with COVID-19 vaccines rolling out across South Carolina — more than 1.9 million doses had been administered in the state as of March 31 — arena general manager Sid Kenyon said he has been hearing from people who are eager to see a show.
“It’s exciting for our patrons, and from the responses we’ve heard, there’s been pretty great enthusiasm,” Kenyon told The State. “It’s very much wanted by certain people. ... Some people have missed certain things in our society, and I think gathering together is one of those.”
There will be COVID-19 protocols in place for the Monster Jam shows, including required face masks, socially distanced seating and hand sanitizer stations set up throughout the arena.
Monster Jam operations manager Andrew Palochko said the traveling truck and motocross event — which has been coming to Columbia for two decades — has been doing shows across the country amid COVID for several months. He told The State organizers are looking forward to returning to the capital city.
“When things took a turn (with the pandemic) a year ago, we took a look at how we could still do business and how we could be comfortable doing business,” Palochko said. “We talked to our fans, and they said, ‘We want to come back to your events, but we want to feel safe in doing so.’ So, we are fortunate to work in some of the premiere sports arenas in the world and we’ve talked a lot with them about putting procedures and policies in place to do these events safely in the community.”
Palochko said a number of monster trucks, including the popular Grave Digger and Megalodon, will be driven in the April 9-11 run at Colonial Life Arena, and several motocross riders will be performing aerial tricks each day.
While Monster Jam will bring touring events back to the Columbia arena, Kenyon said it is helpful for staff that the venue hosted South Carolina basketball through the winter, so they will have a feel for getting the job done amid COVID protocols.
“Between the different athletic events at all of our venues, but specifically basketball here for the arena, I think we have learned an awful lot,” Kenyon said. “Also, we have a lot of communication with other venues in different parts of the country that may have opened to other events sooner than we did. As an industry, we have shared a lot of information.”
Events are starting to roll back onto Columbia’s calendar after a year of COVID limbo. For example, the popular Gervais Street Bridge Dinner is set to welcome 1,000 guests on May 2, the Rosewood Crawfish Festival is on for May 1 at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds, and the University of South Carolina football team will have up to 9,000 fans at it’s April 24 spring game.
