Right now, at this very moment, Connie Chavez is in line at the entrance to the Red Butte Garden amphitheater to see Willie Nelson in concert.

If you too have Nelson tickets, don't worry — the performance is still scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday night. It hasn't changed.

But the 55-year-old grandmother from Farr West wants a lawn seat front-and-center, so she has been in line — at the front of the line — since early Monday morning.

"I'm a big-time Willie Nelson fan," the amiable and animated Chavez said from her lawn chair perched just in front of the music venue's shut gates. "This will be my first time seeing him live. The only time I'd be this chose would be if we end up in the same nursing home."

Arriving early to music shows is a habit of many a fan, but Chavez takes it to extremes. But if you think she's crazy, don't. Because in the end, she will have better seats than you at the sold-out show, the last show of the summer concert season at Red Butte Garden.

As of Thursday morning, she was accompanied by Salt Lake City resident Bill Baer, a friend of Chavez who likes arriving to shows early to get the best spots available. But compared to Chavez, he is tardy. He has been waiting in line only since Monday evening.

With a weather-beaten fedora, a buttoned-down shirt tucked into his jeans, the 55-year-old Baer has a reply for those who think he's crazy. "Show up or shut up," said the unemployed man, who spends the time on his iPhone.

Baer doesn't have a ticket to the show, but he has a successful strategy that he used at the last sold-out concert at Red Butte Garden concert, Sheryl Crow on Sept. 3. He will hold up a sign near the entrance that will say, "One ticket will get you here," meaning the front of the line. He is confident that it will work.

"What a racket," said Bryn Ramjoue', communications director of the botanical garden at the University of Utah. "I've never heard of these strategies." But she knows it isn't illegal to bar Chavez and other early birds from arriving days early to a concert, so she checks up on the relentlessly cheerful Chavez and others to make sure they are OK. She has noticed some concertgoers angered at Chavez's constant presence at the front of the line, but Ramjoue' said they shouldn't be upset. "It's not like you're at the Berlin Wall waiting for your freedom," she said.

Garden officials have posted a list of some regulations at the entrance to the first-come, first-served venue, including one that said concertgoers can retain their place in line only if they leave for no more than 20 minutes, to go to the bathroom or to their car. Another rule is that 90 minutes before the gates open, no one can cut in line. "Be friendly and respectful to others in line" is the last rule.

Chavez, with a tanned face that still looks young, has been coming to concerts Red Butte Garden ever since the venue opened, but only in the last 10 years has she started camping out at the venue days before shows. The type of music fan who actually records re-runs of "The Lawrence Welk Show" on her DVR, she has been to 20 of the 21 Red Butte concerts this past summer, and she has camped out at each one of them. (The only show she has missed is when the Barenaked Ladies performed; the Paul McCartney show at Rio Tinto Stadium was the same night.)

Earlier this summer, Chavez celebrated her birthday — waiting in line to see Joss Stone.

Chavez had considered showing up at the venue on Wednesday instead of Monday, but at the last show some people told her that for the Nelson show, "We're going to crush her." Her husband had to talk her out of arriving at the venue Sunday night.

Chavez is a stay-at-home grandmother and has been married for 25 years, and her grandchildren visited her at Red Butte Garden Monday afternoon, asking her if all grandmothers do this. The thin-framed woman sleeps in the backseat of her Hyundai Sonata each night, parked as close as possible to the entrance so she doesn't leave open her spot in line. Baer sleeps in his van each night.

"I slept with a guy all week and he wasn't my husband," Chavez joked. "And it was all good."

Chavez's husband Fred will join her Friday afternoon, more than 90 minutes before the gates open. She calls him "Cinderfella" for his habit of arriving late — at least in her eyes — for the show.