PNC Bank Arts Center
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The PNC Bank Arts Center is a modern amphitheatre located in Holmdel, New Jersey, USA. About 17,500 people can occupy the amphitheater; there are 7,000 seats and the grass area can hold about 10,500 people. Concerts are from May through September featuring 35–45 different events of many types of musical styles. It is ranked among the top five most successful amphitheatres in the country.[citation needed] It is one of two major outdoor arenas in the New York City Metropolitan Area, along with Nikon at Jones Beach Theater.
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[edit] History
The amphitheatre was originally called the Garden State Arts Center. The 1954 legislation that created the Garden State Parkway (at whose Exit 116 the Arts Center is located) also called for recreational facilities along the Parkway's route, and in 1964 Holmdel's Telegraph Hill was chosen as the site for "a cultural and recreational center ... that would be developed as a center for music and the performing arts." The ampitheatre was designed by noted modernist architect Edward Durell Stone and featured open sides covered by a 200 foot, saucer-like roof supported by eight large concrete pillars. It featured seating for 5,000 people with space for about 5,000 more on the lawn area outside the roof.
The Garden State Arts Center first opened on June 12, 1968, with a program featuring pianist Van Cliburn, conductor Eugene Ormandy, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Arts Center was operated in conjunction with the New Jersey Highway Authority, which also ran the Parkway; for many years, Judith H. Stanley was the Chair of the Commissioners of the Highway Authority.
In the beginning, the Arts Center's programming featured a good deal of classical as well as popular music. In addition, a number of free daytime programs were provided for schoolchildren, senior citizens, and the disadvantaged and disabled. Beginning in 1971, the non-profit Foundation associated with the Arts Center also sponsored International Heritage Festivals before and after the regular season. Focusing on ethnicities such as Scottish, Slovak, German, African American, etc., these festivals remain to this day an unusual part of the venue's programming. Signs advertising these upcoming festivals, along with the regular upcoming concerts, became a familiar site to drivers approaching toll booths along the Parkway.
During off-season months the Arts Center is generally unused, except for a Holiday Light Spectacular show during the Christmas season. A banquet hall is on premises that can be rented for private occasions. In 1995, the Arts Center grounds saw the addition of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
During the 1990s the philosophy of the Arts Center underwent a change. Classical music was almost completely phased out, and a need was felt to expand the venue to compete for the top popular music acts against other, larger amphitheatres on the summer outdoor concert circuit. Thus before the 1996 season, a substantial expansion of the facility was done, with 2,000 seats added (some now outside the roof, which was not altered) and the lawn capacity doubled in size, by way of taking out rows of trees and a surrounding walk and raising the bank around the facility much higher.
In 1998, PNC Bank, a Pittsburgh based banking company, purchased naming rights and the venue was renamed to the PNC Bank Arts Center. (The company also has naming rights to Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball venue PNC Park.)
A variety of corporations provide services to the PNC Bank Arts Center including: Live Nation, New Jersey State Police, MONOC EMS, USI Event Security, Control, Aramark, and more.
[edit] Performers and performances
Portions of Jackson Browne's landmark 1977 live album Running on Empty were recorded there. Perhaps the most popular performer over the years at the Arts Center has been James Taylor, who appears there almost every year and who has been one of the few acts to be booked there three nights in a row. Ironically, Springsteen, New Jersey's most famous musician during these years and a person that lived in nearby towns during most of this time, never appeared at the Arts Center (save for a 1989 walk-on during a Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band show) until two performances in 2006 during the Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour.
[edit] Sinéad O'Connor controversy
On August 24, 1990, Sinéad O'Connor was scheduled to perform at what was then called the Garden State Arts Center. The practice of the venue was to play a recording of the American national anthem before the show began. O'Connor, who said she was unaware of this practice until shortly before the show was to begin, refused to go on if the anthem was played. Venue officials acquiesced to her demand and omitted the anthem, and so O'Connor performed, but they later permanently banned her. O'Connor said that she had a policy of not having the national anthem of any country played before her concerts and meant "no disrespect" but that she "will not go on stage after the national anthem of a country which imposes censorship on artists. It's hypocritical and racist." The incident made tabloid headlines and O'Connor came in for heavy criticism and her songs were banned from a number of radio stations. Frank Sinatra, who performed at the Center the next night, said he wished he could "kick her in the ass." O'Connor replied, "I wouldn't be the first man he has threatened to hit," and her father said that Sinatra was too old to lift his leg to kick her.[citation needed]
[edit] Phish controversy
On June 28 and 29, 2000, over 70 people were arrested in connection with two concerts by the jamband Phish. [1] It is believed that the band was not invited back to the venue, as they did not perform there again before the band's breakup in 2004. Phish's guitarist Trey Anastasio, however, did headline shows at PNC several times in the 2000s, most recently in 2006 with former Phish bassist Mike Gordon.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Garden State Arts Center 25th Anniversary season program, 1992.
