CLEVELAND, Ohio — Construction is officially underway on a 6,200-seat outdoor amphitheater on the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, as Bedrock, Rock Entertainment Group and Live Nation broke ground Tuesday on a venue set to become the city’s largest outdoor music stage when it opens in about two years, according to TicketNews and Cleveland Scene.
The Cleveland Riverfront Amphitheater will be operated by Live Nation and is a centerpiece of Bedrock’s plan to redevelop 35 acres of underutilized waterfront property into a mixed-use entertainment district, TicketNews reported. The project was first announced in February, and the venue is expected to host national headliners, global touring acts and local performers.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne joined executives from all three companies at the groundbreaking. “Every six months we have a new groundbreaking, so we’re moving at good speed,” Bibb said at the ceremony, according to Cleveland Scene. A new amphitheater means, he added, “making sure we can finally achieve this vision of being — of Cleveland being the two-waterfront city the world will be proud of,” Cleveland Scene reported.
Bedrock CEO Jared Fleisher described the project as “truly creating a civic asset, a civic jewel,” according to Cleveland 19 News as reported by TicketNews. Live Nation chief Michael Belken put it more simply at the ceremony, telling the crowd, “Great cities need great venues,” according to Cleveland Scene.
The venue will rise just south of Tower City, a block or so from where the old Time Warner Cable Amphitheater once stood, Cleveland Scene reported. No venue of similar size has been built in Cleveland since that roughly 5,000-seat amphitheater opened in 2001. At 6,200 seats, the new venue will be larger than Jacobs Pavilion’s 5,000 seats a mile away in the Flats, though far smaller than Blossom Music Center’s 21,000 in Cuyahoga Falls.
Updated designs feature a partially covered pavilion with tiered seating and a general admission lawn, with views of the river and the downtown skyline, TicketNews reported. DLR Group is leading the design in partnership with Blueprint Studio, Live Nation’s in-house design group. The amphitheater will sit next to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center.
When the project was announced in February, Live Nation projected roughly $59 million in annual economic impact and hundreds of jobs, TicketNews reported. It is Bedrock’s second structure to rise in its Riverfront neighborhood, where the broader plan calls for hotels, apartments, condos and a public riverwalk in the coming years, according to Cleveland Scene.
Rock Entertainment Group CEO Nic Barlage told Cleveland 19 News the venue is expected to host its first performance in May 2028, while the official announcement targets a broader summer 2028 opening, TicketNews reported. No inaugural performers, ticket prices or on-sale dates have been announced.
Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY