(Image: CHS)

Delayed by the pandemic and a concrete workers strike, Volunteer Park’s new $3 million covered amphitheater stage is ready to host its first performances.

The Volunteer Park Trust community group has announced a July 2nd grand opening for the Capitol Hill facility that will kick off a seven-date summer series of performances to inaugurate the new stage.

CHS Calendar: Summer Series at the Amphitheater

“After seven years and countless volunteer hours spent doing outreach, planning, design, and fundraising, the new Amphitheater at Volunteer Park is opening,” the VPT announcement reads. “This is the first new building for this historic park in 50 years and it is the only public outdoor stage in the region capable of supporting professional dance with its custom-designed resilient stage floor.”

CHS reported here on the March 2021 start of construction on the $3 million amphitheater replacement project that created the new outdoor performance facility with a roof, storage and green room space, all-gender bathrooms, upgraded electrical access, and the “resilient floor that will even accommodate dance performances.”

Construction was expected to be completed late last year but delays including impacts from the concrete workers strike and a protest bid pushed the opening date back. Last week, Seattle’s June celebration of LGBTQ communities kicked off with a return to the park for the annual Seattle Pride in the Park concert event that went on with the show on the park’s conservatory lawn with construction still underway on the new amphitheater.

The new stage and roof structure replaces the demolished and crumbling concrete and brick structure that had hosted performances, rallies, and events for five decades.

A Neighborhood Matching Fund grant provided $25,000 for the Volunteer Park Trust to plan and host the summer event series to show off the new facility.

While you are marking your calendar for July 2nd and the rest of the amphitheater’s summer series, this weekend on Capitol Hill includes Thursday night’s Pride month Capitol Hill Art Walk. Find it and more on the CHS Calendar.

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