It is being dubbed the “Long Beach Bowl”—think Greek Theater in capacity and Hollywood Bowl in style. And it will be by the Queen Mary with the DTLB skyline as its backdrop. With the potential to draw from a larger pool of artists with such a distinctly unique venue, the city has taken a significant step toward making the Bowl a reality.
It is now calling on venue management companies to take over the project when it is complete. Come Sept. 24, the company selected will be responsible for eveyrthing from booking the talent and hiring venue staff to marketing the shows and mitigating noise ordinances.
What, exactly, is the Long Beach Bowl?
Announced last year, the Long Beach Bowl was packaged as part of the City’s “Elevate 28” focus on the Olympics. Mayor Rex Richardson considers this a large part of his tenure’s focus on the need for city entertainment and culture.
“Entertainment is something we can take a grasp on,” the mayor said when proposing the project last year.
The first part? A temporary structure—approved back in January after directing the City Manager in his budget to look at the feasibility of the project with the DTLB skyline and water as its backdrop—would allow some 8,000 to 10,000 people to view concerts and shows. The second, much more complicated part? A permanent venue.
Why the proposed Long Beach Bowl isn’t really that far-fetched—and can honor the city’s rich music history.
The Long Beach Bowl proposal is serendipitous. And that is because SoCal’s live outdoor music scene has been experiencing massive shakeups over the past few years. One startling one is the political battle in Irvine last year. The city council ultimately shut down Live Nation’s proposal to build a massive arena in Grand Park. This was after four hours of public comment that derided the proposal due to potential noise impacts in the neighborhood.
This follows San Pedro’s pie-in-the-sky proposal to build a Hollywood Bowl-style amphitheater at its massive West Harbor project. It remains a far-off dream, considering the project’s base has been continually hindered, having just finished its first building.
Even more, after Goldenvoice essentially vacated the Queen Mary area after a slew of stellar festivals pre-pandemic, there is a deep need for more live music venues.
There’s the sad tale of The Vault, the space at 350 Pine Ave., which hosted acts ranging from the B-52s and Kanye West to Flogging Molly and Ghostface Killah between 2004 and 2008. After being sold for $3.5M and promoted by former property owner Millworks as a “hit it out the park” future music venue, it was sold to a church instead. Yes, it was sold to a church instead.
And the Queen Mary herself? We can take it back to 1978 when jazz guru Al Williams stepped in. He created Long Beach’s first venue dedicated solely to jazz with the Jazz Safari by the Queen Mary. Over several years, the hallowed space was frequented by musicians and music fans alike. Williams became a jazz entrepreneur when he opened his second jazz space, Birdland West in Downtown, nearly a decade later.
Long Beach is already experiencing a renaissance in music festivals—the Bowl could do that for more formal concerts.
Long Beach is in the midst of a festival renaissance.
With Insomniac having a huge base at The Queen Mary, EDM festivals has found itself a new headquarters. There’s the massive house-centric Day Trip. The trance-heavy Dreamstate. Drum’n’bass festival Apocalypse.
These festivals are not just about the music, they’re about community. Whether it’s the Coastal Country Jam or Cali Vibes (which honors the much-missed One Love festival that died in 2020), these events bring people together in celebration of their shared love for music. And concerts—not festivals—provide a different vibe that is just as communally important. It focuses on a singular artist most of the time in a much more intimate setting (unless you’re Beyoncé at SoFi Stadium). That is something desperately needed in our music scene.
Much like Live Nation’s temporary FivePoints amphitheater in Irvine, Richardson’s five-year timeline looks extremely reasonable: As planned, it took roughly one year to investigate the project’s feasibility. With the search for venue operators now beginning, the temporary structure could be up by next year. That leaves three years for planning, passing approvals via the Coastal Commission, and building what will hopefully be a permanent structure.
Yes, please! And think of all the jobs it will create for our local community. I’m so excited for this. I hope it all pans out, and quickly too!