If you have to ask why, then you've clearly never heard Blue Rodeo.

That was the mantra of the early group of super-fans who lined up for hours Monday before tickets for the band's two Whitehorse shows went on sale.

The tickets sold out within a few hours of the sale starting at 4 p.m.

But Dallas O'Neill wasn't worried.

After getting to the Yukon Arts Centre at 8:10 a.m., the long-time Whitehorse resident spent nearly an hour outside in the -27 C degree temperature before snagging the first seat in line inside when the centre opened at 9 a.m.

And there she sat. As the line grew to the hundreds behind her, snaking down the hall until there was no more space and then into a studio full of more chairs.

It would be a total of about eight hours of waiting before she was able to get her four tickets, but O'Neill said it was worth the wait.

"They have good music, they're easy to listen to, and, well, Jim (Cuddy) is nice to look at too,” she said.

"What do you mean, ‘why?'” laughed second-in-line Robert Dunn when asked about his decision to arrive hours early for tickets. "It's Blue Rodeo.”

The Canadian band, a 2012 inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, is made up of Jim Cuddy, Bazil Donovan, Bob Egan, Greg Keelor and Glenn Milchem.

The back-to-back Whitehorse shows will take place Jan. 3.

The Yukon stop is the first on the band's latest tour marking 25 years since the release of their debut album Outskirts.

At the arts centre, Blue Rodeo music played over the speaker system, as fans read books, listened to music, typed on laptops or knitted.

Friends brought snacks and soup for O'Neill. They'll be getting one of the tickets she buys.

Though they had never met before Monday, the early birds at the front of the line appeared to get along.

A stroke of luck, especially if you're going to have to sit next to the same person for hours.

"She brought headphones in case it was terrible,” laughed Dunn.

"I haven't had to use them once,” O'Neill said.

The fans were quick to praise the arts centre for organizing the ticket sale.

Artistic director Eric Epstein said organizers have learned a lot from past events about how to put on a successful ticket sale.

In this case, tickets went on sale in the afternoon instead of early in the morning to discourage people from spending a cold night outdoors.

Tickets were sold from only one location and had to be picked up in person. Some were set aside specifically for people living in the communities.

"It went off about as I expected,” Epstein said this morning. "It was awesome to see that kind of response.”

In the end, only 11 people at the end of Monday's line had to be turned away when the about-800 tickets sold out, Epstein said.

"They were disappointed, but at least they didn't have to wait too long.”