SANTA BARBARA BOWL
The SB Bowl Team Visits Red Rocks Amphitheatre
A gig as a staff member at the Santa Barbara Bowl certainly has its perks—from immediate access to the music industry (think bands and fans) to once-in-a-lifetime experiences. In this case, it’s an in-depth, behind-the-scenes tour at Colorado’s award-winning Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
The SB Bowl Marketing Team occasionally road trips to music venues to gain fresh perspective, compare notes on facility management, better understand best practices at each venue, and to exchange ideas on creating remarkable experiences for fans and artists alike.
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, located 15 miles west of Denver, shares many similar features with the Bowl, and is often a next-stop for Bowl acts on their cross-nation tours. Both venues are located in pristine, naturally intimate settings with heart-stopping views.
During construction, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, both the Bowl and Red Rocks enlisted the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the Work Projects Administration (WPA), to build parts of each venture.
Nestled in the hillsides above Santa Barbara, the Bowl at 4,562 seats, combines Italian stonework and Craftsman-influenced architecture to create a spectacular venue in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara.
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, at 9,525 seats, boasts a very unique location—6,450 feet above sea level—and is the only naturally occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater in the world.
Red Rocks, almost double the size of the SB Bowl, offers the Bowl team a unique opportunity for collaboration and shared best practices to ensure that both venues have equally strong seasons and prosperous futures.
“It was surprising, and refreshing to find that the Bowl’s goals and challenges aligned so closely to Red Rocks,” said Rick Boller, SB Bowl Executive Director. “While we are almost 50% smaller in capacity than Red Rocks the goal of both venues is to continually improve the patrons’ experience, and the biggest challenge is making everyone happy in a safe environment.”
While the Bowl is putting the finishing touches on its $40 million renovation and restoration to improve the aesthetic and patron experience, a visit to Red Rocks shows that continuous smaller improvements work well to enhance experiences for patrons, artists and staff seasonally.
“As demand changes, Red Rocks responds immediately,” said Boller. “For example, this season new and improved points of sales and restroom locations were added to handle increased demand and ease the patron flow.”
Red Rocks makes tweaks and enhancements as needs arise via capital and seasonal improvements, ensuring the facility is always setting the standard for small venue arenas.
“We also like how Red Rocks management handles security communication through crowd management, radio communication and surveillance,” added Boller. “They have a very solid back-office operation.”
In 1999, the Pollstar Best Small Outdoor Concert Venue Award was renamed the Red Rocks Award to permanently reflect the many awards the outdoor venue has received. Recently, Santa Barbara Bowl was named as a nominee for the Pollstar 2015 Red Rocks Award, Best Small Outdoor Venue.
Learn more about Red Rocks Amphitheatre at redrocksonline.com.
