Shoreline Amphitheatre 

Shoreline Amphitheatre
Nickname(s) "Shoreline"
Location Mountain View, California
Coordinates 37°25′36″N 122°04′51″W / 37.426778, -122.080733Coordinates: 37°25′36″N 122°04′51″W / 37.426778, -122.080733
Type Outdoor amphitheatre
Opened 1986
Seating type reserved, lawn
Capacity 22,000

Shoreline Amphitheatre as seen from ground level
Aerial photograph of Shoreline Amphitheatre, with the parking lots and the neighboring golf course

Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheater in Mountain View, California, USA, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a capacity of 22,000 with 6500 reserved seats and rest are unreserved lawn seating. It was built from 1985-86 by the city of Mountain View in cooperation with local promoter Bill Graham as part of the Shoreline Park project. The premier season was during the Summer of 1986 and was planned to open with The Grateful Dead, who had to cancel due to Jerry Garcia's untimely coma. Inerestingly enough, Graham designed the amphitheatre to resemble the legendary Grateful Dead "steal your face" image. Each row of fixed seating at the amphitheatre has a pitch of three feet providing ample legroom and dancing.

In its opening year, a fan attending a Steve Winwood concert flicked a cigarette lighter and ignited methane that had been leaking from a landfill underneath the theatre. Several small fires were reported that season. After those incidents the city of Mountain View commissioned methane testing studies to define the locus of methane vapors emanating from the soil within the Shoreline Amphitheater.1 These tests were used in developing a design for improved methane monitoring and more efficient methane extraction to assure the amphitheater became safe as an outdoor venue. Ultimately the entire lawn was removed to allow the installation of a gas barrier and better methane removal equipment.

The venue has hosted local radio station Live 105's BFD concert every June. The Download Festival's San Francisco show is also held at Shoreline.

It was the site of Phish's final show before their hiatus on October 7, 2000, as well as the site of 12 other Phish shows from 1992-2003.

It has also been the site of every Bridge School Benefit show except one, which was held at the Oakland Coliseum in 1988.

See also

References

  1. ^ Methane testing in the vicinity of landfill environs, EMI prepared for the City of Mountain View, Ca., 1986-87

External links

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