Get ready for the Gorge
Popular George venue announces majority of summer concert dates
Premiere parking, relaxed alcohol rules are new this year
GEORGE — If initial ticket sales and the big names announced thus far are any indication, it's going to be an exciting summer season at the Gorge Amphitheatre.
"It's shaping up to be a good year," said Bill Parsons, vice president and general manager of the House of Blues and the Gorge Amphitheatre, from the venue Wednesday. Parsons has been spending a lot of time at the HOB-owned location near George lately in preparation for the upcoming season.
He's feeling confident about this year's line-up, despite slumping ticket sales industry-wide last year.
"I don't know what the state of the business will be this year," Parsons said, though he remains optimistic about the upcoming Gorge season which has drawn a diverse line-up of newcomers and longtimers.
"The bands that have been here really like playing here," Parsons said, noting that acts like the Dave Matthews Band and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers keep returning year after year. This year will kick off with the Sasquatch! festival on May 28 featuring numerous bands throughout the day and headlined by the Pixies, Modest Mouse, Kanye West and Wilco. Other highlights of the initially announced acts include James Taylor, Keith Urban and Jack Johnson. Favorite festivals like Warped Tour and Creationfest are back again this year.
Ticket sales are also showing promise.
"Sales are up," Parsons said, remarking that even the general admission shows, which typically don't show a real push for ticket sales until the last week, are currently showing higher sales figures than at a comparative time last year.
Ticket sales are skyrocketing for a feature just being introduced at the Gorge this year: premiere parking. Available through Ticketmaster, patrons can purchase premiere parking for $20, reserving themselves a spot in a special parking area and ensuring a shorter walk into the seating area and a speedier exit after the show via a route separate from the general public. The spots have already sold out at nine Gorge shows this year.
At the upper beer garden, premiere parkers are privy to discounts on food and beer which comes with a coupon that gets them into an early entrance line sponsored by Car Toys. Tickets for the early entrance line are also available at Car Toys locations and through full price purchases at the upper beer garden.
Newly relaxed rules about drinking alcohol at the Gorge Amphitheatre and nearby campground will be attractive to those imbibing at concerts this year. Thanks to changes in state alcohol rules, beer and wine stands will be open through the venue and 21-and-over concert goers can don wristbands to prove their age and are then free to move about the amphitheatre, drink in hand. The stands will remain open until dark or shortly before the main act, then patrons wishing to consume alcohol will have to move into designated beer gardens, which are both well-lit and staffed with security guards.
Restrictions about consuming alcohol at the campgrounds have been relaxed as well.
"It's similar to a hotel, you can drink in your room, but you can't walk down the hall with it," Parsons described. He explained that campers will need to keep their drinks close to their tent areas.
Restraints will be tighter on who is allowed inside the campground this year, Parsons warned. Security guards will be discouraging people who come to the campground without a ticket or the intention to buy a ticket, though assessment of who stays and who goes will be done on a case by case basis.
GCSO gearing up for Gorge season, too
By Erin Stuber
Herald editor
GRANT COUNTY — While the House of Blues prepares for another season at the Gorge Amphitheatre, so does the Grant County Sheriff's Office. In fact, they've been planning for awhile, according to GCSO Chief Deputy John Turley.
"We start planning at the end (of the 2004 season)," Turley said.
This year's plans have necessitated a renewal of the House of Blues' Conditional Use Permit, which outlines the agreement between the Gorge Amphitheatre owners and county offices dictating various arrangements about health and safety issues. The new rules about alcohol consumption in the concert and campgrounds areas were the only major changes this year.
Though the relaxed regulations may encourage more drinking in the concert area especially because patrons will no longer have to leave the show in order to get a drink, Turley is confident that the House of Blues has plenty of incentive through their investment in the new permanent beer and wine stands to maintain order and adhere to their mutual agreement with Grant County.
Also new at the Gorge this year is an anticipated court commissioner, either on site at the concert venue or available via telephone. Offenders can be booked and photographed on site and evicted from the amphitheatre thereafter, saving deputies time and the county money.
"It's an extreme cost to the county and our jail budget is extremely low," Turley said of the impact the Gorge concerts have on local law enforcement.
However, the House of Blues does help defray some of those costs by reimbursing the GCSO for its assistance at the Gorge. The House of Blues provides compensation for deputies' salaries, patrol car mileage and dispatchers' salaries.
For example, at last year's Sasquatch! festival, which will also be the first concert of the season this year, 11 reserve deputies were called out to help with security at the show and worked a total of 121 hours at $21 an hour. Reimbursement for the cost of the deputies, milelage and dispatcher services amounted to about $3,500 to the sheriff's office.
The GCSO currently has information from the House of Blues that 21 concerts will be hosted at the Gorge this year. None are considered to be of the highest "level 3" category by the GCSO on its level 1 to 3 scale of assessing the danger potential of the shows.
"So far this year we haven't got anything above a level 2," Turley said.
That could change as more concert dates are announced, particularly if KUBE Summer Jam returns, as is expected.
In July 2002, the KUBE Summer Jam show ended in the shooting death of Leonard Smaldino, a 47-year-old Seattle entrepreneur who also sold snacks to concert goers at the Gorge, as well as reported robberies, a gang rape, a stabbing, 53 arrests and 31 transports to local hospitals. At the time, Grant County Sheriff Michael Shay and other GCSO officials describe the show as the "most taxing, violent and volatile concert in Grant County," in a letter to the House of Blues.
If the show returns this year, there will still be no camping allowed in conjunction with that concert.
As far as concerns for shows listed on the official schedule, those giving the GCSO the most concern at this point are the three Dave Matthews Band dates in August simply because they will be held at the same time as the Grant County Fair.
"That will tax us to no end," Turley said.