America's Cup Opens New San Francisco Concert Venue

(BCN) With the first concert days away, America's Cup organizers Wednesday provided a sneak preview of a temporary 9,000-person waterfront venue in San Francisco that will hold more than a dozen concerts over the next several months.

The America's Cup Pavilion, located at Piers 27-29 along The Embarcadero, holds its first concert on Friday, when the act Imagine Dragons takes the stage.

Sting then plays there on Sunday, with the Steve Miller Band, Weezer, Train, the San Francisco Symphony, Counting Crows and The Wallflowers among the other groups scheduled between this week and October.

The concerts are meant to coincide with the start of the America's Cup sailing races, which start in July with the Louis Vuitton Cup and end in September with the America's Cup Finals.

"The Super Bowl has a halftime show, the Olympics have the Cultural Olympiad, and the America's Cup will have its concert series," said Stephen Barclay, CEO of the America's Cup Event Authority.

Along with the concert series, the venue will also be used to show the races out in the Bay for free throughout the coming months.

Aaron Siuda, vice president of Live Nation Northern California, which is partnering with the America's Cup on the concert series, said crews spent the past two months constructing the venue, including putting artificial grass and other final decorations up in the past few days.

"It's San Francisco's first-ever outdoor waterfront amphitheater," Siuda said. "It's a wonderful venue."

He said event organizers have reached out to the surrounding neighborhoods to address their concerns over sound and traffic issues related to the concerts.

An acoustic curtain has been placed around the stage to reduce noise and a community hotline — (415) 393-9680 — has been set up to handle complaints from the community.

In addition, ticketholders will receive an email alerting them of nearby parking garages and ways to access the America's Cup Pavilion by public transit, Siuda said.

Following the concert series, the venue will then be dismantled and Piers 27-29 will become a cruise ship terminal, which has already been constructed as part of the agreement between race organizers and the city.