After Monday’s announcement of Alan Jackson’s return to Cullman for a drive-in concert, the Cullman City Council officially approved the concert’s event permit — along with a permit for a Warehouse District sidewalk sale to take advantage of the influx of visitors.

In a special-called meeting Friday afternoon, the council approved a special event permit for the Small Town Drive-In Concert featuring Jackson and Cory Farley, which will take place on June 5.

The concert will be open for 2,000 cars and will take place on County Road 469 at the location where Rock the South would have been held this weekend if it wasn’t canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs said municipal employees will help organize the event, direct traffic and be on hand in the event of an emergency just like they are for Rock the South, just at a smaller scale for the decreased crowd size.

Real World Tours, the company organizing the concert, will reimburse the city for the extra work city employees are doing for the event, he said.

The council also approved a permit for the Warehouse District to close a portion of 1st Avenue SE for a sidewalk sale on the same weekend, pending approval of the merchants in the district.

The sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jacobs said he hopes some of the people who come to the city for the concert will stop by some of Cullman’s local stores to bring some much-needed sales tax revenue.

“That’s going to be a good weekend,” he said. “We’ll have some extra folks in town.”

With the cancellation of Rock the South and other area events over the past few months, the people are starving to get out and do something, and this concert should allow them to do so in a safe manner while also providing some revenue for businesses, said Councilman Clint Hollingsworth.

“This is going to be a COVID-friendly event, a family friendly event, and I think it’s going to be a real positive for Cullman,” he said.

Some of the hotels in the city are also seeing a lot more reservations for next weekend than they have over the past few months. Some owners have reached out to say thanks for organizing the concert to help bring some people into the area, Jacobs said.

“They were very appreciative and very happy that y’all were able to do something like this,” he said.

Tickets for the Small Town Drive-In Concert are available at alanjackson.com/drivein.

General admission price per vehicle (up to two passengers) is $99.99; additional passenger tickets may be purchased for $39.99. A limited amount of VIP parking, closest to the stage, is available starting at $199.99.

A portion of all proceeds from each concert will go toward food relief efforts in the respective regions, which have been taxed more than usual due to current events and resulting economic circumstances.