Germain Amphitheater

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The Germain Amphitheater -- renamed from the previous Polaris Amphitheater following a sponsorship deal with the Germain Motor Company in 2003 -- was a 20,000 seat outdoor entertainment venue located in Columbus, Ohio.

Billy Ray Cyrus played the first concert at Germain Amphitheater in 1994. Since that time, Germain Amphitheater has hosted some of the largest names in music including Farm Aid in 2003, and Ozzfest in 2007. Toby Keith played the final show on September 16, 2007

On June 17,1997 at Ozzfest, concert goers began throwing bottles at the stage, others smashed box office windows, started brush fires and overturned cars outside the ampitheater, after the announcement was made that Ozzy Osbourne would not perform.

There are 6,700 seats in an open-air pavilion -- much of it under cover -- and room for another 13,300 people on general admission lawn seating. The majority of the concert season is announced in mid-April and typically begins in mid-May, continues through early October and features 20 to 30 concerts per year.

Germain Amphitheater is currently owned and operated by Live Nation.

According to the Columbus Dispatch,[1] the amphitheater will be for sale after the 2007 season and may close. The article cites rising real estate values as the main reason behind the sale and also speculates competition from other similarly sized venues such as Nationwide Arena, Value City Arena and Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in the area may have contributed to the decline in number of shows hosted by Germain Amphitheater in recent years. In 2007, only 9 nine shows were scheduled, the least amount of shows at Germain since it opened. The facility and property are currently for sale and there have been no buyers as of December, 2007. ^[1]

There are no shows scheduled for the 2008 season and their website has been shut down.