Sandstone Amphitheater, currently known as Azura Amphitheater, is an open-air
amphitheater located in
Bonner Springs, Kansas, United States.
It is owned by the unified government of
Wyandotte County and
Kansas City, Kansas, shares its grounds with the
Kansas City Renaissance Festival and
National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame and is located adjacent to the Wyandotte County Park.
About Azura Amphitheater
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History
Designed by Bird Engineering, it originally opened in 1984,naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
for seven years from Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
-based Clear Channel Entertainment for an undisclosed amount. Clear Channel Communications spun off its live events management division in 2005 to form Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
-based Live Nation, which continued to manage the venue through the 2007 concert season. Locals simply refer to the venue as "Sandstone".
In September 2007, Live Nation announced that it would let its managing contract expire on December 31, 2007. In January 2008, the Unified Government Commission ratified a pact with local promoter Chris Fritz's New West Presentations, Inc., to operate the venue through the end of 2009, with a two-year option to extend the contract. Under the new deal with New West, the name would revert to Sandstone.
Through 2007, the venue featured 6,700 reserved seats and general admission lawn
A lawn () is an area of soil-covered land planted with Poaceae, grasses and other durable plants such as clover lawn, clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawn mower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic an ...
seating. Beginning in 2008, plans are underway to remove the majority of the reserved seats closest to the stage in order to make that area a general admission section. The change in the seating configuration is designed to let more fans get closer to the performers and eliminate costs of the extra security normally required. Additional structural changes include an upgraded VIP club and new sound and video systems. Through the years the stage has fought several limitations. For instance, a 37-foot roof is well below the norm, which often proves challenging to book shows.
Name
It has undergone numerous name changes since it opened:
* Sandstone Center for the Performing Arts (original name from 1983 to 1993)
* Sandstone Amphitheater (1993-2002, 2008)
* Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
* Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone
* Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
* Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
See also
* List of contemporary amphitheatres
This is a list of amphitheatres in use today with a capacity of at least 1,000.
Amphitheatres by capacity
See also
* List of concert halls
* List of jazz venues
* List of opera houses
* List of Roman amphitheatres
* Lists of stadiums
Ex ...
References
{{Authority control
Amphitheaters in the United States
Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Kansas
Music venues in Kansas
Theatres in Kansas
Tourist attractions in Wyandotte County, Kansas
1984 establishments in Kansas