On any given day, visitors to UC Santa Cruz’s vast campus might stumble upon a grove of 150-foot-tall coast redwoods, a nesting white-tailed eagle, a handful of yellow banana slugs on the roadside, or a whole host of products. 2,800 fans attended.
The latter will be provided by the historic Quarry Amphitheater on campus, a natural limestone amphitheater that fell into disrepair in the 2000s and reopened in 2017 after a two-phase $8 million capital improvement program , then closed again due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Quarry will officially reopen as a concert venue on October 12th, Kevin Morby Presenting: This Is A Festival features Morby (ex-Babies and Woods); singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt; Trevor Powers’ experimental pop project Youth Lagoon; prolific Paris-born drummer, composer home and producer 3; beloved indie rocker Ben Kweller; and rising hip-hop and alternative rock band Blackstarkids. Chris Black and Jason Stewart of the pop culture podcast How Long Gone will serve as hosts for the evening.
Managing Director of The Quarry Amphitheater said: “The Quarry is an incredible space and when looking to the future of the venue we wanted to create a replica that looked like the original venue but had the same features as any other modern venue. own characteristics. Jose Reyes OlivasWorks on behalf of UCSC and previously booked and helped produce San Francisco’s Stern Grove Music Festival.
The quarry hosted a screening last month and Reyes-Olivas said it was “rebuilt from the ground up,” adding a new load-bearing roof system, lighting trusses and motorized rigging. Venues do not have PA systems; tour groups bring their own speakers or rely on third-party back-end companies for amplification, Reyes-Olivas noted, as do the Greek Theater in nearby Berkeley, Calif., and Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif. in this way.
Once seen as a stopover for touring bands between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, California’s Central Coast has become a major music market. Oakland company Ineffable manages venues in Santa Cruz and coastal towns such as Ventura and Monterey, while nearby Stanford University reopened its 8,000-seat Frost Amphitheater in 2021.
The Quarry — officially reopened last month with a special screening of the 1984 Talking Heads concert documentary stop making sense — Reyes-Olivas revealed that he has reached a first-look booking deal with Bay Area independent concert promoter Noise Pop Industries advertising billboard The venue is an open facility available to qualifying concert promoters. Founded in 1993 as a $5 club night with 5 bands on the bill at the San Francisco Kennel Club (now known as The Independent), Noise Pop has since grown to become the Bay Area’s premier indie promoter One, booking hundreds of bands in dozens of concert halls.
Noise Pop chief executive says Moby was “definitely on the shortlist” when it came time to book the quarry Michelle Swain. “We’re really big fans of Kevin and everything he does…so we reached out to his team about hosting a full day event at the quarry and he loved the idea.”
She added: “I think it’s great that the university is really investing in finding ways to bring more shows to the Quarry by reducing costs and further investing in venues. We’re working with them to find ways to bring more shows to Santa Cruz A meaningful and appropriate program for music fans.
Tickets for Kevin Morby Presents: This Is A Festival are on sale now via QuarryAmphitheater.com.
