During Chris Stapleton‘s recent All-American Road Show stop at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, the price of admission came with a tasty snack. As the singer performed his hit “Parachute,” glowing mini-parachutes descended into the crowd — and attached to each one was a hot dog.
Yep, you read that right: Some lucky fans managed to grab onto the dogs as they drifted down into the crowd. After the fact, official social media channels for the All-American Road Show shared a closeup image of one of the parachutes, as well as the hot dogs attached to them.
“Why yes, we deployed hot dogs on parachutes during ‘Parachute’ in Seattle,” the caption reads.
A fan in the crowd captured the moment on video, describing the phenomenon as “Hot Dogs from Heaven” as they showed the glowing parachutes drifting down from the sky. “There it is!” you can hear someone yelling in the background.
Of course, the hot dogs were a nod to “Parachute,” which is one of the hits off Stapleton’s 2015 Traveller album. But that’s not the only reason why Stapleton and his crew decided to launch their hot dog parachutes in Seattle: “Hot Dogs From Heaven” are apparently a bit of a tradition at this particular venue.
T-Mobile Park, a retractable roof stadium, is the official home of the Major League Baseball team the Seattle Mariners. In a spring 2024 installment of Daniel Kramer’s Mariner’s Beat newsletter, he explains that the aerial dogs are a new tradition that started last offseason.
It all started when meat snacks purveyor Hempler’s was looking for a “spectacle-type feature” to add some pizazz to T-Mobile Park events, according to Mariners Senior Manager of Game Entertainment and Experiential Marketing Tyler Thompson.
They started testing out the idea of parachuting in hot dogs before opening day, and now it’s a fairly regular feature at the venue with the goal of repeating the moment 15 to 20 times before the Mariners’ season ends in late September.
“We’re looking for large crowds and nights where we have enough staffing,” Thompson tells Mariner’s Beat. “It takes more people to prepare and throw hot dogs on parachutes than you might think.”
It’s not the first time that the flying hot dogs have doubled as a music-related pun, either. Back in May, they deployed the dogs to the soundtrack of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth.”
Stapleton’s All-American Road Show is set to continue through August.
Carena Liptak is an Associate Editor and staff writer at Taste of Country. She specializes in breaking country music news, interviews and lists. In particular, she’s got a soft spot for sad songs — check out her roundup of the 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time!
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Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes