BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech is making a quick turnaround — from hosting a massive rock concert to preparing for one of the university’s most important milestones.
Lane Stadium, still echoing from the roar of 70,000 Metallica fans last week, is now fully prepped for graduation. Crews worked for about 48 hours to remove the concert flooring and restore the football field turf — one of the fastest stadium flips in school history.
“We are ready for graduation. We are all set up and ready to go,” said Virginia Tech spokesperson Mark Owczarski. “There’s been hundreds of people at Virginia Tech who’ve been working around the clock to make sure that happens. Why? Because this is the one celebration we do not want to come up a day late or a dollar short on. There’s so much pride here, there’s so much excitement for our students, that folks have been working continuously to go from a Metallica show and all that that brought, right down to the seating, the stage, and all the pomp and circumstance ready for Friday’s commencement ceremony.”
Owczarski said the university was determined to treat both events with care and coordination.
“We don’t want to put one above the other. Both add value to our community. Both are super exciting events,” he said. “But we knew we could do both, and we were able to execute on that.”
He added, “We can have a lot of fun at a concert. We can also celebrate a lifelong accomplishment of up to 8,000 students back to back. Those are two very special events. I’m glad one didn’t impose on the other. And it shows you what we’re capable of doing.”
Commencement ceremonies at Virginia Tech begin Friday morning.