Grant spurs amphitheater improvements in Anderson

THE DREAM:
Anderson River Park’s outdoor amphitheater will see some major upgrades during the next few years as it starts to resemble this plan by Land Image, a landscape architectural and planning firm in Chico. Bottom, the proposed master plan. Right, main entrance.

Anderson Parks and Recreation Director Ken Hartman has had a dream for several years that his modest 2,500-seat outdoor amphitheater at Anderson River Park might someday become a destination venue for top performing groups.

That $1.4 million dream drew one step closer to reality last week when the city accepted a $26,000 grant from the Shasta Regional Community Foundation’s McConnell Fund. That grant will join another $150,000 that the city had previously received from The McConnell Foundation for the same project.

“It’s exciting. It’s going to happen. The new amphitheater will be awesome,” said city councilman Keith Webster, who was mayor when Hartman first broached the subject of upgrading what is currently called the Gaia Hotel Amphitheatre.

“We are going to do the development in three stages, so we are looking at expanding the stage area this fall,” Hartman told the city’s five-member council.

The first phase involves expansion of the existing 28-foot by 40-foot semi-circular stage. The stage floor will be elevated another 30 inches to allow better visibility from the gently sloping seating bowl that surrounds the stage. A wheelchair ramp and equipment loading dock will also be added to the stage to allow better access for the handicapped as well as the haulers of band equipment, sound and light systems and related stage dressing, Hartman told the council members at a previous meeting.

Other phases, to be accomplished during the next several years as funding is developed, will provide tiered seating, a promenade walkway, concession stands, new and renovated restrooms and a fence around the entire facility with gated access that will allow promoters to charge admission for special events, Hartman said.

“The Mosquito Serenade concert series will always be a free event,” Hartman explained, but special events such as an all-day Woofstock Music Festival, planned for Aug. 23, will need to be able to control access if they charge admission.