Concord Pavilion

Concord Pavilion (previously known as the Sleep Train Pavilion and Chronicle Pavilion) is an amphitheater in Concord, California. It is a part of Concord City and is run by Live Nation. The Pavilion has a capacity of 12,500, and it opened in 1975 as the Concord Pavilion. It is used for gigs, local community activities (including an annual jazz festival), and local high school graduations.

The Pavilion had been designed by architect Frank Gehry and landscape architect Peter Walker. In the mid-1990s, Gehry also conceived its renovations which included more parking and seating. The venue has hosted numerous professional musical acts over the years of its service, and continues to do so up to this day. In the Pavilion Bing Crosby played his last concert in the US

Lawrence Welk ‘s appearance at the Concord Pavilion on 13 June 1982 has been billed in farewell as his performance. After Huey Lewis and The Press left a show at the Pavilion, famed music promoter Bill Graham was killed in a 1991 helicopter accident, having just spoken to the band about organizing a benefit for the victims of that year’s fire in the Oakland Hills; Graham’s production company, Bill Graham Presents (BGP), had been the booking agent of the Concord Pavilion since at least 1985.

Under an agreement with the City of Concord, Bill Graham Presents took over ownership of the facility in February 2000. Soon afterwards, the name was changed to the Chronicle Pavilion at Concord after the business agent bought the naming rights from the San Francisco Newspaper Company. Clear Channel Communications acquired BGP in 2000 along with its parent, SFX Promotions; Clear Channel would spin off its concert operations into Live Country, which still runs the Pavilion, in 2005.

After the California-based mattress retailer (now a Houston, Texas-based company) bought the naming rights, the Pavilion changed its name in April 2006, when it became the Sleep Train Pavilion; by 2017 the retailer folded into Mattress Firm.

In December 2013, the Pavilion ‘s name was again changed to the Concord Pavilion as part of a 10-year contract extension between Live Nation and the City of Concord.

The First Battle of the Bands was held in 2006 for high school , middle school, and elementary school students and the winner was a high school band, Poster Boy.