By Jessica Benda
Contributing Writer
After a severed partnership with Live Nation, Irvine is revising plans for an amphitheater in the Great Park — and it may spotlight the Pacific Symphony as its resident orchestra.
The envisioned 8,000- to 10,000-seat venue is intended to replace the temporary FivePoint Amphitheater, run by Live Nation, which filled the void after the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater closed in 2016. The city aims to open the new amphitheater by summer 2027, said Assistant City Manager Pete Carmichael.
Irvine had partnered with Live Nation on a 14,000-seat amphitheater proposal, which would have been designed by Live Nation and built by the city. The cost of that venue was projected to be as much as $130 million, with Live Nation contributing $20 million for construction and $3.5 million per year for its use, increasing 3% each year. Irvine councilmembers scrapped the collaboration in July during a lengthy meeting with plenty of resident opposition and after Live Nation offered a counter-proposal that involved a price increase of $20 million.
Carmichael said the split with Live Nation hasn’t hindered the timeline too much for opening some type of permanent venue.
“The difference is that they were well down the road in design and almost ready to move to construction drawings,” he said. “We’re backing that up and starting fresh in terms of a smaller facility, which has an in-house sound system and is operator-led rather than promoter-led.”
Los Angeles has the Greek Theatre. San Diego has the Rady Shell. Irvine leaders say they are hoping their new amphitheater can match those venues. Steve Torelli, manager of Great Park, said officials have been looking to those venues for research purposes, including operating strategies and booking policies. A feature that Irvine is prioritizing, he said, is an in-house speaker system to mitigate residential noise impacts, which was a prevalent concern with the now-scrapped Live Nation…
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