A funny thing happened on the way to the amphitheater. As Long Beach is celebrating the opening of the new F&M Bank Amphitheater near the Queen Mary, much of the attention has understandably focused on its inaugural concert featuring Snoop Dogg on June 7. Yet amid the excitement surrounding the city’s newest outdoor venue, a similar piece of Long Beach music history has largely been forgotten.
Long before today’s waterfront amphitheater, Long Beach had another outdoor performance venue in the heart of downtown: the Downtown Amphitheater, also known as the Amphitheater at International Square. Located at First Street and Locust Avenue along the Promenade, it served as a gathering place for around 200 capacity music lovers, 500 standing, throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The venue emerged during a transformative period in the city’s history. In 1975, Long Beach embarked on an ambitious downtown redevelopment effort that included the creation of the Promenade, a pedestrian walkway that replaced a section of Locust Avenue south of Third Street. The same year saw the debut of the Long Beach Grand Prix, while the beloved Pike amusement zone would close just five years later. The amphitheater became one of the cultural centerpieces of this new downtown vision…