Vancouver will soon have a new, world-class amphitheatre at Hastings Park, replacing the current PNE stage.
The $65-million project was announced by PNE’s president and CEO Shelley Frost on Wednesday. She said plans have been in the works for years with the City of Vancouver.
“The amphitheatre will be a venue that will not only showcase our spectacular natural surroundings but will also provide an important solution to limited venue space within the city,” Frost said.
The new venue will have a massive open-roof structure that will be one of the longest of its kind in the world, officials said.
The project, once finished, will be part of the city’s efforts to add more access to music and cultural spaces for B.C.’s creative sector.
“This is a very significant day for the PNE and for everyone in the city of Vancouver. Delivering performance opportunities for talented artists while at the same time creating a beautiful space where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together to create collective memories is at the heart of creating a vibrant and fun city,” Sarah Kirby-Yung said, PNE’s chair and a Vancouver city councillor.
“This new amphitheatre will ensure generations of Vancouverites will be able to enjoy music and culture in an unparalleled setting in historic Hastings Park.”
Construction is expected to begin in early 2024 and will be completed in the summer of 2026. The project will be designed by Vancouver’s Revery Architecture.
“We wanted to create a unique experience for both the audience and performers, in a world-class amphitheatre,” said Venelin Kokalov of Revery Architecture.
“Our architectural solution was an elegant structure that will cover the amphitheatre, gracefully landing on three points into the landscape. This gesture will frame vistas to the mountains and the surrounding context, creating transparency at the human level and an intimate atmosphere under the warmth of the wood.”
PNE officials said they are looking to find “mutually beneficial sponsorships,” which will include naming rights for the amphitheatre.
In November 2022, PNE and Playland announced a new $9-million roller-coaster.
Officials said the new ride will be the “fastest of its kind in North America.”
It will have more than 1,200 feet of track and it will rise and drop from more than six storeys in the air.
Featuring an opening tunnel, an 18-metre first drop, airtime hills, helices and sweeping turns, the experience will be unlike anything else in the country, staff said.
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