One of Morgan Hill’s most popular public outdoor event facilities is about to get a new name, just in time to welcome one of the South Bay’s – and the nation’s – most familiar faces in rock ‘n’ roll, according to event organizers.
Kihncert is coming to Morgan Hill for the second time, and the 2014 event is scheduled for Aug. 30 at the Community and Cultural Center amphitheater at 17000 Monterey Road, which will soon be renamed the Morgan Hill Downtown Amphitheater.
Chart-topping, classic rock legend and novelist Greg Kihn, and other “internationally known” acts to be announced will perform Aug. 30 at the outdoor entertainment venue located at the Community and Cultural Center, according to spokespeople for the all-day rock ‘n’ roll show’s producer, Morgan Hill-based Arts Related Technical Training for Entertainment Careers.
And it will be one of the first events at the venue after it is renamed the “Downtown Amphitheater,” according to City staff. The Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency built the amphitheater and adjacent indoor community center – which houses a number of classrooms, conference rooms and the Community Playhouse – in 2002.
Many have already started calling the amphitheater – which has a seating capacity of about 300 – the “Downtown Amphitheater,” but the City is likely to officially change the facility’s moniker before the outdoor entertainment season, according to Morgan Hill Public Information Officer Maureen Tobin.
“Calling it the Downtown Amphitheater provides for a better connection to the rest of downtown Morgan Hill and more accurately describes it for those not familiar with Morgan Hill,” she said.
City staff are currently looking into new signs indicating the theater’s new name, and “hope to have an official ribbon cutting” just before the Mushroom Mardi Gras in May and the annual summer-long Friday Night Music Series, which is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce at the CCC amphitheater. That summer concert series typically starts in June and last year continued until the last weekend of August.
The Friday Night Music Series, which has been held at different venues throughout town for more than 20 years, will start this year on June 13 with The Jesse Charles Band opening up, according to Chamber President Rich Firato.
Firato said the venue’s coming name change will “tie everything into the downtown,” including the CCC which has long been viewed by some as just outside the downtown.
“It tells everybody in town, out of town, or wherever they see it, that the Friday Night Music Series is at the Downtown Amphitheater. Everyone is going to come downtown to get to the amphitheater,” Firato said. “It’s great for marketing, and for merchants, and for the Downtown Association.”
But that’s just one of many spring and summer events on tap at the amphitheater. It is also the site of special entertainment events such as the annual Mushroom Mardi Gras and a July 3 pre-Freedom Fest concert.
ARTTEC staff hope the Kihncert will be “the next big downtown event,” ARTTEC President Gary Harmon said.
Although the amphitheater has a listed capacity of 300, organizers noted that it has comfortably hosted close to, if not more than the 5,000 that ARTTEC hopes to draw to Kihncert 2014.
“There’s going to be some logistical issues, but nothing we haven’t tackled before,” ARTTEC spokesman Mike DiRubio said.
Kihncert is an annual all-day rock concert featuring a full lineup of classic rock acts, emceed by Kihn. Previous Kihncerts have been held at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, and featured acts such as The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey and Boston.
ARTTEC, which enlists area students to produce “high-quality” entertainment events, along with the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance, brought the Kihncert – a South Bay tradition – to Morgan Hill for the first time in October 2013.
Last year’s Kihncert featured the Greg Kihn Band and also Bret Michaels, The Tubes, dada and others. It was held at the Outdoor Sports Center. Organizers said about 7,000 people attended last year’s Kihncert.
This year’s Kihncert will be “bigger and better than last year, with a lot of exciting surprises,” Harmon said.
The event, like last year’s, will consist of two stages – one of which will be dedicated to local acts.
“We’re looking for exceptionally talented local musicians to be featured on the second stage,” Harmon said.
The full big-stage lineup will be announced in the coming weeks as musicians confirm their commitments to the Aug. 30 event, added DiRubio.
ARTTEC is currently in talks with “internationally known” musicians, DiRubio added.
In addition to music, the event will feature vendors, food and drinks, DiRubio said.
The promoter opted for the amphitheater venue this year because of its central location in downtown Morgan Hill.
“We felt like it would make better use of the city facilities, and make a more central location for the event to occur,” DiRubio said. “And we felt it would make the downtown businesses are lot more visible to people who are visiting from outside Morgan Hill.”
