Get your boots shined and hats out, Garth is coming to town.

Garth Brooks, country singer extraordinaire, is coming to Hilton Coliseum on Thursday, Oct. 7. He will be performing at 8 p.m. Tickets s are $18.50 each.

Due to the large number of fans expected to purchase tickets, the wristband system will be used. Wristbands will be distributed on Wednesday, Sept. 4 starting at noon.

Customers may pick up numbered wristbands during normal business hours at a number of Ticketmaster outlets. Ames outlets include the Iowa State Center Ticket Office (both Hilton and Stephens Auditorium), Save-U-More and the Iowa State University Memorial Union.

Wristbands will be distributed until Friday, Sept. 6 at 9 p.m. or while supplies last.

Brooks, who played in Iowa City last year, has “always wanted to play Hilton,” his manager, Glen Smith said in a press conference Monday.

“Hilton is a wonderful facility,” Smith said. “We’ve been putting this together for over a year.”

Smith said the wristbands do not guarantee a person a ticket, merely a place in line. To buy tickets, customers must return to the same place where they picked up their wristbands.

At 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7 each participating Ticket Center location will announce a randomly selected starting number corresponding to one of the numbers on a wristband. Lines begin forming at 8:30 a.m. for the announcement.

Once the starting number has been announced, the customers with wristbands must line up accordingly. Wristbands must remain on the customers’ wrists until they have purchased their ticket. There will be a six ticket limit per person, of which, only two tickets may be in the first 10 rows on the floor.

Only cash will be accepted at the Ticketmaster outlets and the Iowa State Center Ticket Office.

Exceptions are the Younkers Ticketmaster outlets at Merle Hay and Valley West Malls in Des Moines. They will accept Younkers credit cards.

Smith said Oct. 17 and 18 are also blocked off Brooks’ schedule if demand calls for added concert dates.

“If the demand is there,” he said, “there may be multiple shows.” Smith said “demand” is determined by the number of people in line who did not receive tickets.

People without wristbands who would like to be in line for tickets may form a line following the customers with wristbands.

For more information call the Iowa State Center at 294-8808.