Zac Brown Band gave fans more than just a show at Fenway Park on Sunday night, as the Grammy-winning country group surprised attendees with a free cruise vacation giveaway.
The more than 35,000 audience members at Sunday’s stop of the “Love & Fear” tour were gifted with complimentary trips aboard the Margaritaville at Sea, redeemable on select voyages over the next year. According to a press release, the giveaway is valued at almost $40 million and comes personally from Brown, thanking fans and celebrating the band’s 15th consecutive sold-out show at Fenway Park. Zac Brown Band, which made its debut at the ballpark in 2014, owns the record for most consecutive sold-out performances at the Boston venue.
Brown told the audience about the surprise prior to the group’s performance of the song “Same Boat.”
“I’m buying every single person here a cruise for two people,” Brown said as the stage’s screens displayed a number for fans to use to sign up for the giveaway. “Every single person here gets a cruise for themselves and a loved one.”
“This is the biggest giveaway in history, ladies and gentlemen, here tonight at Fenway Park,” he added.
“We were honored to work alongside Zac to help bring this incredible surprise to life for his fans,” Christopher Ivy, CEO of Margaritaville at Sea, said in a press release statement. “This was an extraordinary way to thank the fans who have supported him throughout his career, and we’re proud to have helped make that incredible vision a once-in-a-lifetime reality.”
Over the course of the tour, the band has given away four cruises per show in collaboration with Margaritaville at Sea, with fans receiving trips on the new Beachcomber ship, debuting in January 2027. The ship features a live music venue dubbed “Same Boat,” codesigned by Brown and named in tribute to his work with the late Jimmy Buffett on the song of the same name.
Before announcing the giveaway on Sunday night, the band played a video tribute to Buffett passing down a tiki torch to Brown.
“Tonight we’re going to do something that even Jimmy would say is crazy,” Brown teased before revealing the surprise.
Fans in the crowd were excited by Brown’s announcement.
“We were shocked,” said Hannah Mattis-Roesch of Winchester. “We were laughing because we love to prank our parents, and this is totally something we would prank them about so they think this is one big joke.”
Fans also had theories on why the band would decide to choose Boston as the city to do this massive giveaway.
“This is the greatest city in America,” Zach Mattis-Roesch instantly responded.
“[Zac Brown] loves Boston,” Mattis-Roesch added. “Growing up, we remember our parents saying we are going to Zac Brown and it’s become an esential Boston thing.”
Other fans were cautiously optimistic about sailing aboard the cruise.
“We signed up for this hoping its real,” said Isabelle Cilley of Swampscott, although she and her sister, Georgia, admit cruises aren’t really their thing, but are willing to try it out. “If it’s free I would go, and that would be the only cruise I go on because I’m not a cruise girl.”
Inducted into the Fenway Music Hall of Fame in 2022 after so many years of putting on shows at Fenway Park, Zac Brown Band doesn’t plan to stop playing at the ballpark anytime soon.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a time when I’m like, ‘Eh, I don’t really want to play Fenway,’” Brown told the Globe ahead of Sunday’s show. “Like, I’m in. And I’ll be like Willie [Nelson], I’ll be playing until I can’t play anymore.”
Celine Hijazi can be reached at celine.hijazi@globe.com.
