Carter Barron Amphitheater in the District’s Rock Creek Park will host shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday, its first performances since 2016.
The three shows will be held at 6 p.m. each night.
On Thursday, the JazzDC AllStars will perform in a prelude to DC JazzFest.
On Friday, it’s 20-year Chic vocalist Sylver Sharp turn to sing with her band.
On Saturday, the groups Black Alley and Chester Burke Jr. & Company will hit the stage, according to the Rock Creek Conservancy website.
The amphitheater, one of the first integrated outdoor performance venues in the U.S., was built in 1950, a brainchild of movie executive Carter Barron to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the District of Columbia becoming the national capital, per the Rock Creek Conservancy.
In February 2017, the National Park Service shut down the performing arts venue after an inspection revealed that the stage’s substructure could no longer hold the weight of equipment and bands.
The agency determined that it had to rebuild the entire stage structure and modernize other parts of the venue’s infrastructure, the National Park Service says on its website.
Instead of using the venue’s stage, which is still structurally unsound, the three shows this week will use a temporary stage that covers the first few rows of seats.
“We had to get creative, and it’s amazing what production companies can do these days,” Rock Creek Conservancy Executive Director Dan Puskar told Washington’s WTOP-FM.
The reopening is temporary, but the Rock Creek Conservancy hopes the shows will build support for restoration plans.
“The quest to reopen Carter Barron truly is not over. In fact, in some ways, we still feel like we’re in our early days,” Mr. Puskar said.
Ms. Sharp told Washington’s WRC-TV, “Carter Barron was the melting pot of music in D.C., especially during the summer months. … Whatever it takes to get this back up and going, to get the neighborhoods back together, to get the camaraderie that we had, music still is the universal language that will never change.”
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