McGrath Amphitheatre in Cedar Rapids continues to evolve after first 10 years

CEDAR RAPIDS — The McGrath Amphitheatre has played under a star shower for a decade — onstage and at nightfall.

VenuWorks of Cedar Rapids doesn’t ask stars to come to the outdoor stage. Instead, promoters ask to bring their performers to the venue along the Cedar River. But the space serves a broader purpose --- it’s also part of the city’s flood protection system.

Sean Meloy, 52, of Cedar Rapids, interim executive director of VenuWorks of Cedar Rapids, discusses the evolution of the venue that has attracted such star power as Diana Ross, Peter Frampton, Willie Nelson and Jack Black’s Tenacious D band.

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“We’re proud to be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the amphitheater this year,” Meloy said. “It seems like the time is flown by, and we’ve really come a long way since then. It’s almost become a landmark of Cedar Rapids, if you will.”

The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: What role does VenuWorks play with the McGrath Amphitheatre?

A: VenuWorks is contracted by the city of Cedar Rapids, particularly the Parks and Recreation Department, to put programming in the (amphitheater).

Q: It was designed to be part of the westside levee system as well as a venue for music. How have you seen that role evolve in its first decade?

A: The city has constructed that warehouse-slash-restroom building, which is right behind the police station. The building was designed as part of the flood protection system. (It) provides some level of protection for those buildings that are directly behind the police station.

And it has provided a better patron experience, because there’s actually restrooms on-site so we don’t have to use (portable toilets).

It (also) provides us an actual warehouse where we can store facilities on-site. Prior to that warehouse, everything was kept at the (downtown) PowerHouse arena, and we had to move it all over by trucks. It was awful. Chairs, tables, tents — we use tents for everything over there. We also have a walk-in beverage cooler on-site, whereas prior to that, we would have to rent refrigerated trucks to store all of our beverages.

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Q: Who pays for those improvements?

A: That’s all funded by the city of Cedar Rapids. The McGrath Amphitheatre is technically a city park, so it’s operated by the city Parks and Recreation Department (and) it’s under their budgets.

Q: What does VenuWorks pay for?

A: Anything that we put in to the facility is paid for by VenuWorks. So like all of the tents that get rented, all of the production, sound equipment, all of the chairs, all the labor — anything that makes a show happen. The concessions are part of it, too.

Q: How about paying for the acts?

A: It’s all about contracting with a promoter or an agent to bring an act to the McGrath Amphitheatre, and then all of those financial details are worked out based on the number of ticket sales, and how much equipment is rented.

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Q: What kind of events are staged there these days? I remember the first concert was Jamie Lynn Spears, on July 4, 2014.

A: When the amphitheater first started, a lot of community-based events were programmed in there. And over the years, we’ve started to lean more towards music touring shows. Especially since the pandemic, the last two or three years have been primarily all touring shows and very few community events. And that’s simply because the community events have moved on to different venues. So we’re really focused now on touring acts as our primary source of programming.

Q: How do you decide which acts are most appropriate for the amphitheater versus the indoor venues?

A: We aren’t the ones who decide that. It’s really the promoters who decide that for us. The amphitheater is kind of unique, because it’s not so small that only a few certain types of acts can be in there. And it’s not so large that you have to have these large acts in there. We focus on this sweet spot of about 2,500 tickets sold, and that tends to bring in or to attract a variety of artists that can fit in that type of a setting.

And the fact that it’s at a riverfront outdoor amphitheater only adds to the attraction of that as well, because they love playing outside. They love the idea of an outdoor riverfront setting like we have here. Because of that, I think we get a lot of unique type of touring shows that come through here that we normally would not be able to do inside of the PowerHouse just because we wouldn’t be able to sell enough tickets to put them in there. We’re fortunate to have the amphitheater to fill that for us.

The Paramount has 1,700 seats, and we can fit up to 8,000 seats inside the PowerHouse, so there’s not much of a middle ground there. Our max capacity at the amphitheater is right at 4,000, so it fills that void quite nicely.

Q: Do we have any other nearby amphitheaters that compete with this one?

A: The one that we compete with the most is Lauridsen Amphitheater in Des Moines. It’s a little bit larger than ours, but it’s similar. It’s a riverfront amphitheater. That's our No. 1 competitor when it comes to amphitheaters.

Q: Do you provide a sliding scale for community groups that might want to use it, or is that not a thing?

A: It absolutely is a thing. Latino Fest is the one that we’ve continued to do year over year, and we’ve provided them a very reasonable rate to put on that event. We also host the CRBT Movies on the Riverbank and the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band. It’s not something where we charge a ton of rent or anything like that, because we want those community events to be there. Even though there’s not as many as it used to be, we’re very proud of the ones that are still there.

We’re hopeful (the recent Orchestra Iowa concert) continues to be a new annual event for us, because that was their Brucemorchestra that moved to the amphitheater. We thought that went really, really well, so hopefully, we can continue to partner with them year over year to bring that event to the amphitheater.

Five Seasons Lights is our new community-based event that we are that we are hosting. We’re going to continue to do that year over year, as long as the public perception remains high for it. We were looking for something new after BBQ Roundup kind of fizzled out during the pandemic. We were looking for something new to give back to the community, and one of the things that we noticed was a lack of a good holiday experience in Cedar Rapids. So we put our heads together and we came up with Five Seasons Lights. The amphitheater was a perfect location for that, so we're hoping to build on that in future years.

Q: What kind of hours are set, in consideration of the burgeoning residential landscape, and what happens if a band goes beyond that time limit? I’m thinking specifically of Michael Franti & Spearhead, that someone told me went to 10:30 p.m. on a Monday.

A: There’s a city noise ordinance that goes into effect at 11 p.m. We always tell our artists that it’s 10:30, in case they do go over, which sometimes they do. And so 10:30 is typically the latest that the concert will go.

Q: Do you see any plans for expanding or improving the parking?

A: We actually provide paid parking at Sunner Park along Valor Way, behind the police station. We can fit a number of cars in there. We sell parking in advance. You can buy parking when you purchase a ticket to a show or you can purchase it the night of the show.

Another thing about that restroom building: It allows us an entry point on that side of the venue. A lot of people don’t know that, but directly behind the police station on Valor Way is an entrance into the venue.

Q: Have there been instances where weather has wreaked any havoc?

A: Oh my God, yes. We always try to keep the PowerHouse open as a backup space whenever we have an amphitheater show, in case we do need to move a show because of weather there. The most recent incident was in 2022 during the Bonnie Raitt show, where we had to evacuate the entire facility because of lightning. That was a challenge.

Q: Some of my friends who went to Cake (May 10) got rained on a bit, but the show went on.

A: With all of our shows there, we always advertise them as rain or shine. But we watch the forecast very closely. If there’s any danger of severe weather, something that would cause a public safety issue, we raise those concerns to the promoter and let them decide if they want to continue to do the outdoor show or move it indoors.

Q: What kind of feedback do you get with the amphitheater?

A: We get all kinds — good and bad. We find that a lot of our fans drive many miles from out of town to come see a show at the amphitheater, and I always hear a lot of comments about how beautiful it is. The view from across the river, they love that. People take pictures of it.

On the flip side, we also get a lot of complaints. They don’t like the bugs or the folding chairs or the heat.

So it can go both ways.

Q: Where do you see the venue 10 years from now? If you look into your crystal ball, any predictions?

A: I think we’re just going to keep on growing. I would almost foresee us doing more touring events. We certainly have the capability to do more touring events than what we’re doing now.

I know that the city supports what we’re doing at the amphitheater, and they will continue to keep it the beautiful landscape that it is.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com