GTCC music and entertainment grad Sakia Lindsay lighting up the road with Luke Combs’ tour

“In the long term, I absolutely couldn’t see myself doing anything else,” said Lindsay.

From the time she first climbed up to the catwalk above the stage as a Southeast Guilford High School student, Sakia Lindsay knew she wanted to work on the technical side of music and entertainment. She just didn’t have any idea how quickly she would get there.

Lindsay, who graduated from Guilford Technical Community College with a lighting and sound certificate in May of 2023, just finished a 30-show tour as a lighting tech with country music star Luke Combs.

“In high school, I started out taking theater classes, and I enjoyed acting,” recalled Lindsay. “But I had to do a couple of things in the tech office, and then I had to go up to the catwalk a couple of times. After that, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”

Even though there was some pushback from her family, Lindsay opted for GTCC’s two-year music entertainment program out of high school.

“When I graduated from high school and told my family what I was going to do, they said, ‘No, go to a four-year (college).’ Well, I came out with no debt. It was like I got paid to go to college. For somebody who came from a low-income family, this allowed me to pursue school and not worry about having to make money to go to college,” said Lindsay.

Like most any first-year college student, Lindsay wasn’t sure what to expect. It turns out the GTCC experience quickly exceeded expectations she may have had.

“It really became like a community very quickly,” Lindsay said. “My teachers were so nice. I got to know them on a personal level. I feel like I would not have made it to where I am without their support. I was worried I wasn’t capable, but every time I went to them for support, they were there for me. I really got to understand the basics, from top to bottom, how everything works.

“I went in and learned how to use tools, to lift things, to organize things, the basic skills I may not have learned in a four-year school.”

GTCC students in the music and entertainment curriculum typically get real-world experience at various venues around the Piedmont Triad. When that opportunity arose for Lindsay to begin paid gigs, she was all in.

“After the first semester, after I had finished my prerequisites (classes), they asked who wants to go try being a stagehand. I quickly quit my job at Starbucks,” Lindsay recounted. “It’s cool saying I worked these shows before I graduated.”

Some of the local shows she worked on while still a GTCC student included Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, WWE, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the musical “Wicked.”

When it came time for her internship, Lindsay went on the road with Joyce Meyer, a Christian speaker who tours the country with large shows. It was a good experience for Lindsey, but when that internship ended, she wound up with a dream job: a fulltime lighting tech for Luke Combs’ “Growin’ Up and Getting’ Old Tour.”

“It was so much better than I expected,” Lindsay said of the Combs’ tour, which she joined in April for 30 shows plus some one-off events after the tour ended. “I went in thinking I’d be working all day and all night, and I’d be visiting all these cities with no chance to see anything. And I was so nervous that I would be making mistakes. But everyone on the Luke tour welcomed me with open arms. Everyone was happy to answer me and help me. They were adamant that this was my playground. If there’s something you haven’t done, ask questions.”

She also explored many of the cities the tour visited including Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Phoenix.

“The crew chief we had, some days he had us work eight hours, some days four, and the next day 12. It all varies; if we work late one night, we go in late the next day. It gave us some time to do things away from the shows.”

Lindsay was one of six lighting techs who were in charge of installing and removing more than four tractor trailer loads of lights and equipment at each stop. The tour needed 18 big rigs to move all the equipment needed for each show.

“We fly or bus out to wherever we are going to be, dump our gear off the truck, get our lights in the air, and make sure everything works,” said Lindsay, describing her day-to-day routine.

Lindsay has a handful of shows remaining with Combs this year. When not on the road over the next few months, she will be working in the Special Event Services shops, readying equipment for future shows. She said by early spring, she should know when the next big tour starts and who it will be with.

 “In the long term, I absolutely couldn’t see myself doing anything else,” said Lindsay.