White Stripes? Glace Bay sees green

With tickets selling out in 12 minutes and fans coming from as far away as Asia, Saturday's White Stripes concert is going to be a big boost for Glace Bay, N.S. and for the Savoy Theatre, manager Donald Ferguson said.

The Detroit rock duoofJack and Meg White,on tour to promote its sixth album Icky Thump,is celebrating its 10th anniversarybefore about 800 fans in the Cape Breton community.

The concert will be recorded for release on DVD, something Ferguson considers a "tipping point" for the theatre,which shares the same red motif as the band.

"I just hope that we put our best foot forward," he said. "We'll get bigger bands of their magnitude to come again and hopefully millions of people buy the DVD and see the theatre and want to come visit."

Ferguson said the White Stripes show is the biggest concert the Savoy has ever hosted.Jack White, born John Anthony Gillis, is a distant cousin to Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac, who will open for the band.

When tickets for the show sold out in 12 minutes, Ferguson knew it was a very big deal for the area.

"It's like, this is something that we really don't know what we're getting into,"he said. "We're quite excited."

A few fans lined up outside the theatre for tickets, but most were sold online. For a community eager for tourists, that means visitors from all over, including Asia, Ferguson said.

Closer to home, John Sherman and his girlfriend were scheduled to leave Ohio on Wednesday to head to Glace Bay.

"We decided to drive," Sherman told CBC News on Tuesday, "because Lindsay wanted to explore the country a little bit and we have reserved a nice little bed and breakfast in Port Morien, and Lindsay is extremely excited about lobster season."

Ferguson has already secured one corporate sponsor, who agreed to pay $7,500 for six tickets. And he's looking for more.

"We have one of the bigwigs from Sirius Radio coming to celebrate his birthday," he added. "They have a call centre just up the road from here, so we're just hoping that we can shmooze him and get them to be a corporate sponsor."

The band's 18-stop Canadian tour, with shows in every province and territory, startedon June 24 in Burnaby, B.C. It wraps up July 16 in St. John's, N.L.