“The San Diego Symphony is off to a rousing start with its new $85 million bayside venue, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park,” writes George Varga in Wednesday’s (10/6) San Diego Union-Tribune. “Attendance at The Shell, as it is known for short, exceeded 88,000 people in its first two months of operation. Between the Aug. 6 gala opening concert and a Sept. 30 performance by jazz guitar great Pat Metheny, the venue has hosted 28 paid events and averaged 3,100 attendees per event, the symphony announced on Wednesday.… ‘Looking back at the first eight weeks of performances at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, I could not be more thrilled,’ San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer said in a statement…. That 88,000-plus total attendance exceeds the number of concertgoers during any two-month period in the symphony’s decades of previous outdoor summer concert seasons. Moreover, The Shell was built as a year-round venue. It has another 18 nights of music scheduled between Friday and Nov. 14….. The new venue enables the orchestra, led by music director Rafael Payare, to continue performing outdoors at a time when the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made some audience members hesitant to attend indoor events.”
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