The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park is an open-air

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California. It first opened in 2021, and is operated by the

San Diego Symphony The San Diego Symphony is an American symphony orchestra based in San Diego, California. The orchestra performs at Jacobs Music Center and the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. It serves as the orchestra for the San Diego Opera. History On December 6, ...

on the grounds of Embarcadero Marina Park South, which the symphony leases from the

Port of San Diego The Port of San Diego is a seaport in San Diego, California. It is located on San Diego Bay in southwestern San Diego County, and is a self-supporting district established in 1962 by an act of the California State Legislature. In addition to por ...

. The site is located on

San Diego Bay San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port in San Diego County, California, near the Mexico–United States border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of ...

in the Marina district of

downtown San Diego Downtown San Diego is the central business district of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. It houses the major local headquarters of the city, county, state, and federal governments. The area comprises seven d ...

Design and construction

Prior to construction of the Rady Shell, the San Diego Symphony had held summertime concerts at the same location for 15 years using temporary structures. The new permanent venue, initially called the Bayside Performance Park, broke ground on August 29, 2019, and was designed by Tucker Sadler Architects. The central Performance Shell was designed by the London company Soundforms. Rudolph and Sletten was the general contractor and Coffman Engineers provided the structural engineering. The symphony originally planned to invest $45 million in construction of the venue and associated improvements to the park, such as new lighting and public restrooms. The new facilities were planned to open in July 2020. However, the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

delayed the opening for 13 months. The symphony decided to use the extra time to add features to the project, resulting in a final budget of $85 million. More than 99% of the funds were raised from private donations. In May 2021, the symphony announced that the venue would be named "The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park" in honor of some of its major donors: Ernest and Evelyn Rady gave $15 million for the project, and Joan and Irwin Jacobs donated $11 million. Other major donors included the Conrad Prebys Foundation ($12 million) and Una Davis ($10 million). The facility was officially opened with a

ribbon-cutting ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

on August 5, 2021. A six-course dinner and a

fireworks Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...

display accompanied the following evening's opening San Diego Symphony performance of music by

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

, Gershwin, Saint-Saëns, and

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

Facilities

A covered stage supports both symphonies and pop music performances. A sloping lawn covered with

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

provides variable amounts of seating for 2,000 to 10,000 guests. Only temporary seating is used so that the lawn can be open for public use on non-concert days. A typical performance in 2021 was configured for 3,500 seats; this was expanded to over 4,700 seats for 2022. The number of performances is limited to ensure public access to the park, and no more than six events per year can use the maximum seating capacity.

Performances

Artists who have performed at the Rady Shell include

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Leon Bridges Todd Michael "Leon" Bridges (born July 13, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He signed with Columbia Records to release his debut studio album, '' Coming Home'' (2015), which peaked at number six on the ''Billboard'' ...

Stewart Copeland Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is an American musician and composer. He is best known for his work as the drummer of the British rock band the Police from 1977 to 1986, and again from 2007 to 2008. Before playing with the Polic ...

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is noted for her Optimism, optimistic and Idealism, idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including Rock music, rock, Po ...

Norah Jones Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...

Gladys Knight Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins Will ...

Ledisi Ledisi Anibade Young (; born March 28, 1972), better known simply as Ledisi, is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, author, and actress. Her name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba. In 1995, Ledisi formed a band afte ...

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he ...

Olivia Rodrigo Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (born February 20, 2003) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She began her career as a child, appearing in commercials and the direct-to-video film '' An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success'' (2015). She rose ...

Ben Platt Benjamin Schiff Platt (born September 24, 1993) is an American actor and singer. The son of film and theater producer Marc Platt (producer), Marc Platt and philanthropist Julie Platt, he began his acting career in musical theater as a child and ...

Charlie Puth Charles Otto Puth Jr. (; born December 2, 1991) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. His initial exposure came through the viral success of his cover (music), song covers uploaded to YouTube. Puth signed with the record labe ...

Lea Salonga Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, ( ; born February 22, 1971) is a Filipino singer and actress. Known primarily for her work in theatre, she has starred in musicals on Broadway and in the West End. Her accolades include a Tony Award and a L ...

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (KGLW) are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonica, keyboards), Cook Craig ( ...

, and

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rady Shell at Jacobs Park Band shells Culture of San Diego Event venues established in 2021 Landmarks in San Diego Music venues in California