City of Hollywood ArtsPark

ArtsPark Grand Opening 6/3/11

Many years ago, Hollywood's downtown park was known as Young Circle. If you have lived here a while, you remember events like the Jazz Fest and the Wing Ding festival playing at the Bandshell. At the time, I lived near downtown and these events were very popular. Also at that time, Hollywood had a sleepy to nearly dying downtown with empty store fronts, terrible eateries, and pawn shops. Once the event was done, so were the crowds. Now the downtown is a revitalized, happening place to be. Young Circle has been transformed into the ArtsPark with one glaring omission. The Bandshell was torn down years ago and not replaced. That  is until the grand opening of the new amphitheater on June 3rd.  Hollywood is back on the map with not only a tremendous new concert venue but also a downtown to support the visitors.

I was there last night for the grand opening and I noticed two things. The audience started out very small with a lot of people asking why this was not advertised better. Second, everyone was calling friends to get down to the ArtsPark for the free concert. I was doing the same. By the time Expose hit the stage at 8:30 pm the place was packed. I would guess there were about 2,000 people and 200 dogs enjoying last night's show. I would expect the same for tonight's free concert featuring En Vogue. I was parked in the downtown garage and as I was leaving there were still open spots. Seems like a lot of the people enjoying the show just walked over from their homes. That has not happened in years. I hope Hollywood makes free concerts a regular thing. I know I would be a regular visitor if they did.