WILD

from Performances Magazine | The Music Center, July 2023

CALL OF THE

audiences alike—at venues such as the Arboretum, the Rady Shell in San Diego and the Hollywood Bowl.

Weather, sound vagaries, audience response and other factors figure into the outdoor equation.

The greatest difference for Feinstein, a veteran of such venues including the Bowl, is “the energy of the audience. An outdoor setting is inherently more casual. People are more relaxed—it’s like they’re coming to a picnic or a party.”

IN SAN DIEGO, the two-yearold Rady Shell at Jacobs Park is a stunning bayfront addition. It’s inspired by a seashell and set on a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water—picturesque but a concern, says Travis Wininger, vice president of venue operations for the San Diego Symphony.

“Salt water is a real enemy of electronics,” Wininger says. “The potential problems are not so much with waterproof equipment, but with sound and lighting and computers…. The salt water can affect that equipment quickly. Even the marine layer rolling in at night … leaves behind a film of salt over everything.” In addition to routine maintenance, all light fixtures and speakers are dismantled and thoroughly cleaned annually.

Rady Shell administrators subscribe to a weather service that affords constant updates. Sun can damage equipment—and seatcushion fabric—even more quickly than salt water, Wininger notes; seats got more durable cushion materials after the first season.

The Rady sound systems are designed to make amplified music sound as natural as possible, but levels are constantly monitored. Audio can sound louder traveling across the water to nearby Coronado Island, and levels change depending on the weather.

Bunnies in the vicinity venture out at concerts’ end to see if departing patrons have left any treats. And birds have prompted fascinating measures.

“During avian migratory season [in fall and spring], we limit our lighting on the exterior of the

Shell to short-wavelength light,” Wininger says. “We only use colors such as violet, blue, cyan, green and their mixtures. Lights of longer wavelengths would attract the birds and prevent them from going further.”

MANY PERFORMANCE considerations at the Hollywood Bowl are the same as indoors, according to L.A. Phil director of production Michael Vitale. But, he says, “you’re dealing with an uncontrolled situation. You just never know what the weather’s going to be like, what the temperature is going to be—is it going to rain, be windy, is someone grilling a steak somewhere and you start getting odors, all that stuff.

“You’re open to the elements.”

The Bowl is a rain-or-shine venue—the show goes on whatever the weather. Bowl staffers hand out ponchos to patrons in inclement weather; umbrellas are banned both for safety /CONTINUED ON PAGE 30