New Tulare amphitheater to open in time for October concert (2024)

Zumwalt Park is about to reopen in downtown Tulare with a new amphitheater, playground, and splash pad, city officials said.

With these new amenities, the park is expected to attract between 35,000 and 50,000 visitors to downtown annually.

“The project remains on schedule and within budget,” said Tulare City Manager Marc Mondell, adding that the target date to complete the project is Oct. 24.

The goal is to finish the new amphitheater in time for a country music concert headlined by Clay Walker, RaeLynn, and Canaan Smith scheduled for Oct. 26. The concert will happen even if there are unforeseen construction delays, Mondell said.

Musical acts coming to Zumwalt Park

Other concerts scheduled for the final months of 2024 are an ’80s show featuring A Flock of Seagulls, the Motels, and the Tubes; a rock concert with Buckcherry and Living Colour; and a show headlined by Asia and Foreigner.

These musical acts are all looking forward to performing in the new Adventist Health Tulare Amphitheater in Zumwalt Park, Mondell said.

“What most people don't realize is bands are always looking to play in new venues just like concert goers are looking to see bands in new venues,” Mondell explained. “Most of the venues in the Central Valley – the venue that's down in Bakersfield, and venues that are in Fresno or Visalia – they're all a little bit older and so the opportunity to play in a new state-of-the-art center is exciting to the bands, just like it is to the patrons.”

The city has a contract with Spade Entertainment, which is responsible for organizing and arranging entertainment in the amphitheater, attracting talent, and handling production and marketing.

“They are obligated to put on at least 12 shows per year,” Mondell said. “They'll do more than that. They'll have all kinds of different acts throughout the year. There will be individuals who want to rent out the theater to put on a play so they’ll handle that. There will be other community-type events.”

But Mondell said the new venue will have “no challenging acts.”

“We want the facility to be family-friendly,” he said. “We're not looking to bring groups that attract individuals who want to come here and campaign on political issues. That’s not the purpose. This is an entertainment venue. It’s not intended to be an outlet for political opinions.”

The venue will accommodate seating for 6,000 people, according to Mondell.

“I doubt there will be a time when we have 6,000 in there,” he said. “If we have a big festival, I could see times where there might be 5,000. Most of our shows will be probably have 2,500 to 3,500.”

Almost all of the seating for shows will be general admission, but there will be designated areas with VIP seating. These seats will have higher ticket prices but offer a higher level of service and stage visibility.

There will also be shows that are free to attend.

How will Zumwalt Park renovations impact downtown?

For many years, Tulare City Council has discussed revitalizing downtown.

“Downtown won't redevelop by itself … We're doing this largely as a tool to attract people to come downtown. It will be where our citizens and our visitors can recreate and entertain," Mondell said. "Just for our concert series alone, those 12 to 15 shows will bring 35,000 to 50,000 people a year to downtown that otherwise wouldn't be coming downtown.”

In time, Mondell expects entrepreneurs to notice the increased number of people in the area.

“Entrepreneurs will decide open up an ice cream shop or a little restaurant or little art studio, or something that will help the capitalize on the people we are bringing downtown by virtue of this concert series and amphitheater,” he said.

He added that Zumwalt Park is also a recreational amenity, noting that the renovation project includes plans for a new splash pad and a new playground.

“The entire venue will be fenced so families can come, and mom and dad can sit and watch the show,” he said. “The kids could be at the splash pad or the playground, and they could all have a really nice night out.”

Mondell doesn’t expect the sound from concerts to be a problem in the area.

“We will have a decibel reader and will measure the readings all the way around the venue,” he said. “This type of sound dissipates fairly quickly.”

He doesn’t expect parking to be a problem, either. He is confident that there will be “plenty of parking” on Friday and Saturday nights because “we have very few businesses open then.”

There are about 3,000 parking spaces in the northwest downtown area and another 4,000 spaces on the east side, all less than a quarter mile from Zumwalt Park, according to Mondell. He added that parking won't be an issue until “downtown becomes very successful.”

Additional features at Zumwalt Park

The pavilion has been Zumwalt Park’s most distinctive feature.

Its new role will include beverage services at events. The circular pavilion allows for more lines than other venues, which will provide visitors with faster service.

The playground is divided into two areas: one for small children to play and the other for older children.

It will have a jungle gym that is custom-designed to look like the USS Zumwalt, a guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy. It will also have traditional playground equipment, such as balancing beams and seesaws, but that is all “modern looking.”

There will also be a zipline area where the kids can hold onto a bar and zip down to the other end of the line.

The new splash pad is an area that allows children to run through water coming at them from all directions. At night, everything will be lit up with colored lights so children can run through streams of red, green, or blue water.

The water in the splash pad will circulate, enabling most of it to be reused. Plans also call for more trees to be planted in the park and an irrigation system to minimize water use.

4Creeks of Visalia has conducted construction management and inspection. The general construction contractor is Fresno-based Caliber Contracting Services, Inc.

The construction contract cost is $11,964,000.

“This will be the only park in the city where the city actually has the opportunity to cover its costs and help cover its liability because the operator carries some of the city’s liability for shows,” Mondell said. “This park was designed with very specific intents in mind. We took what was a passive park, just green space with trees, which was nice but it wasn't doing anything for us.”