BRINGING Top Music Artists TO THE RICHMOND COMMUNITY
Riverfront Amphitheater is officially under construction as the venue marks the first step to bringing world-class artists to Richmond for the summer 2025 concert season.
With a location in the heart of downtown, the four-acre site will be home to a new venue that will host a variety of events and concerts while contributing to the economic vibrancy of the downtown. The Riverfront Amphitheater is expected to host around 30 shows each season, and the venue will also accommodate a variety of festivals, community gatherings, special events and more. As part of a public-private partnership, the City of Richmond and local nonprofits will be able to utilize the venue for civic events, including graduation ceremonies, public forums and city-sponsored cultural events.
The amphitheater is the first venue of its kind in Richmond and will offer fans a new destination to enjoy outdoor concerts, with incredible views of both the downtown skyline and the James River. The amphitheater is thoughtfully planned to pay homage to the natural beauty of the site with plenty of green space and designed to complement the city’s architecture. With a 7,500-person capacity, the venue will draw thousands to the downtown center, driving significant economic contributions to local businesses before and after shows. Each year the venue will generate $30.6 million of economic impact from operational spending and off-site visitor spending by concert goers in the region.
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Why here?
Most communities the size of Richmond have added music and live arts venues appropriate to their metro scale as they grew. The Richmond area has not. For that reason, peer cities can attract popular tours and artists that currently don’t have a place to perform in our area.
Richmond’s existing music venues are ideal for hosting indoor shows, and the city currently has no site to accommodate the big-name performers who crave a larger venue in an outdoor setting.
Richmond music lovers regularly travel to Virginia Beach, Northern Virginia, Raleigh and farther to see the artists they love. Charlottesville, with a fifth of Richmond’s population, attracts more top-100 tours based on ticket sales than Richmond. Our region has the music fans, but it lacks the venue to attract top talent.
The amphitheater is a partnership between Virginia-based Red Light Events and Live Nation. As part of this partnership, Live Nation will bring top touring artists to the venue as well as its proven track record of operating venues with an exceptional hospitality experience for fans, artists and employees.
As part of the Richmond community, Live Nation will create more than 300 jobs at the new venue and will partner with local vendors for food & beverage concessions and backstage artist hospitality programs.
The venue will also feature Live Nation's Green Nation sustainability program, which has zero waste teams working to reduce single-use plastics and promote recycling, composting and food donations.
The amphitheater’s location has a long history of hosting major community gatherings, with the Folk Festival, Friday Cheers and Brown’s Island concerts all taking place in the vicinity.
Thousands of downtown parking spaces are within walking distance, along with public transit accessibility, bike and scooter parking, easy ride-share access and close proximity to Interstates 95, 64 and the Downtown Expressway which makes the venue a convenient destination for fans from across the metro region.
Conceptual design - subject to change.