York Boulevard Parkade is being turned into a temporary open-air music venue
- Michael Kras
- 30 May 2020
In exciting news for music lovers and concert-goers, the City of Hamilton has approved an initiative that will see the top level of the York Boulevard Parkade – across from the Hamilton Farmers’ Market – turned into a temporary open-air music venue.
The proposal was brought to city council and was approved in a 14-2 vote. From here, an open call will be put out to interested potential operators who can convert and run the upper level parkade space as a performance venue and book live music.
The show must go on! Hamilton has approved allowing the top level of our downtown parking garage to be turned into a temporary, open air performance venue, in order to support our music and performing arts industry #musiccity pic.twitter.com/V9TRjOxQLN
— Jason Thorne (@JasonThorne@Mastodon.Social) (@JasonThorne_RPP) May 29, 2020
The news has already thrilled those in the city who really miss live events, because let’s be real: we can all binge Netflix all we want, but there’s no real replacement for the singular energy of gathering with others for a shared live experience.
However, the current realities of COVID-19 and the dangers surrounding large gatherings mean that most of the live entertainment industry will be some of the last pieces of society and the economy to come back to normal.
As a result, the arts are taking a particularly huge hit at the hands of this pandemic.
Thankfully, Hamilton – as a burgeoning hub for arts & culture – has been working to find more immediate means of supporting the return of live experiences in ways that put safety first and allow for proper social distancing. That’s where the York Boulevard Parkade comes in.
Once some live events are able to occur again under controlled, socially-distanced ways, the York Boulevard Parkade will be converted into space where gatherings are allowed to occur safely and Hamiltonians can once again enjoy the thrill of a live experience together.
Not so fast, though: the province still needs to relax its restrictions on large gatherings before that happens, and that could still be weeks or months off.
But according to Jason Thorne, Hamilton’s general managerr of city planning and economic development, the plan is for the York Boulevard Parkade music venue to be ready to jump right in once that happens.
The idea has been met with lots of praise and excitement on social media from local champions excited by the concept’s possibilities, but the whole thing has its critics as well.
“Once we’re allowed to have events that big venues will want to open,” tweeted Hamilton cultural advocate Jeremy Freiburger. “So why would the city open a space to compete with the existing and already damaged venue market?”
What do you think of the idea, Hamilton? Let us know in the comments!
Lead image courtesy of @JasonThorneRPP
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