We’ve been watching the progress and anxiously awaiting the finished product for months, and the Aaron Bessant Park Amphitheater officially received it’s Certificate of Occupancy last Friday. Having lunch at Pier Park Wednesday, I overheard them sound testing and stopped by to check it out.
Once I got there, I found Pro Tech (the sound and lighting masterminds behind the PCB Seafood Fest and many of the other events you’ve spectated in our area) with speakers hung, lighting in the progress of being hung, all to test the new infrastructure and play with the setup. They were rocking out to AC/DC and Mario Gisbert (the new City Manager) and other local officials with the City of Panama City Beach were there to witness the tests.
The concept renderings of the building were pretty, but the finished building is really a spectacle to behold. The colors are vibrant and the style closely matches the motif Pier Park set precedent for years earlier and the architectural features are clean and beautiful. It was fun walking through it as it felt like that new shiny car that you’re test driving for the very first time.
They said the first scheduled event is in April for the Seabreeze Jazz Festival and they tentatively have the Panama City POPs scheduled for a performance there later in the spring.
Here is a breakdown of all the features of this new amphitheater.
Here are other posts related to the Pier Park Aaron Bessant Park Amphitheater.
Pictures
From this view, you can see the paved driveway that will allow access for performer’s vehicles and loading trucks.
This is from the back of the stage looking out, to the north and slightly to the east. The covered stage area is very large, much larger than some of the pop-up stages that we’ve seen here in the past.
This is obviously from the front-west side. The white panel you see is a place for a projector to project video of performances. Behind that panel is the dressing rooms and admin office.
This is looking at the opposite side of the amphitheater. The white panel here is the same as the other side and there is a large loading area perfect for anything up to a semi-truck trailer to unload.
This view shows the back of the structure. You can see how polished everything is. That large green area in the middle are those huge hangar doors that open up completely and allow the Seabreeze come through.
PCBDaily 
What a wonderful accomplishment for PCB…… YEAaaaaaaa! Can’t wait to see it in July. 🙂
Cathy/Tennessee
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Looks awesome, but why wouldn’t they raise the projection screens higher like they do in a concert venue? They are just as high as the stage so no use to anyone towards the back.
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I will be in the Panama City area for a few weeks from Mid- February.
Is there someone I could contact about getting into some senior softball games while I’m there? I am 70 years old.
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In 1977 I was part of a collective that precudod a booklet Live to Fight Fight to Live’ at ther University of Qld. We were the first generation of University students in Queensland that came from the working class, the poor, the marginalised, women. For example, in first year Medicine at UQ in 1969 there were only about 12 women out of 300-350 students. All this changed in 1972 when the Whitlam government made Unis free. UQ, like other Australian Unis, was flooded with ordinary people. Facilities were poor. The labor government made Unis accessible but there were not enough classes or teachers. It was not unusual to sit on the floor in a packed lecture theatre designed for 150 students with over 300 present. We soon gave up going to classes and spent a lot of our time at the refectory, discussing the world! On occasion we formalized our non-attendance into a strike i.e. when police attacked us for protesting against the apartheid. Political activists began the long march through the existing institutions This period is reflected in the poem To the Victor belongs the Spoils by Daniel del Solar:Sitting in the sunon Scorpius1963a verygood year bad yearGreek democracy diedpolitical assassination grewto national proportionswith the victimsthe President and LeeHarvey Oswaldon live tvin front of my eyesliving in a house coveredwith snow and sunlightfalling through the lacecurtains in the tv roomon Scorpiusthe play of weatheron real-time screensbatch processedthrough megabitdisks to predictweatherhereand therein the Chile streetsto the victorbelongs the spoilsin Greecethe winter stadiumbecome prisonas bare months agoso too the stadiumbecame the prison as theshudderof spring turned redwith the blood of brothers ya estan matando a Chilenos and now they are killing Chileansin the Greek sports stadiumstoothey are showinghow they definespoilsjusticelive to fightfight to liveLive to Fight – Fight to Live – booklet precudod by LeftPress collective at University of Queensland (1977) – we were so much younger then.Ian CurrSept 2011
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