From the Britt Festival website:
Nearly 47 years ago, Portland conductor John Trudeau and his friend Sam McKinney visited southern Oregon with the dream of starting a music festival. The former hillside estate of Jacksonville pioneer Peter Britt was perfect. Being musicians, they immediately noticed an amazing resonance to the hillside’s acoustics. Combined with the gorgeous view of the valley in the distance, they decided the hillside would be the perfect site for concerts.
In the summer of 1963, volunteers erected a makeshift stage of plywood and strung tin-can lights above. A small chamber orchestra was assembled and the Northwest’s first summer outdoor music festival was born.
Britt offered classical music exclusively until the present pavilion was constructed in 1978. The new facility enabled expansion to the current multi-disciplinary format. Bench seats were added in 1987 and the handicapped access and restrooms were built in 1993.
With a maximum capacity of 2,200, Britt is financially able to afford world-class artists while maintaining an intimate atmosphere. The Britt Park is publicly owned by Jackson County and maintained by the Parks Department. The Britt Festivals Association is a non-profit performing arts organization which utilizes the Britt Park under a long-term lease with Jackson County.
Recently we drove to Oregon to enjoy a concert by Crosby, Stills, and Nash at Lithia Motors Amphitheater at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, as part of the Britt Festival offerings. On a warm late-summer evening, we sat in comfortable seats facing the amphitheater which backed up to large ponds on the fairgrounds. We purchased a bottle of Oregon wine and slid it into the bottle holders on the seat backs in front of us. Before the band took the stage, we chatted with other concert-goers nearby and watched the very efficient and noticeable security staff guide patrons to their seats. When CS&N began to play, the mainly over-50 crowd was wildly appreciative during their 2-1/2 hour concert. We didn’t see any patrons out of control, intoxicated, unruly, or destroying property – and when we remembered back to the 2008 season, when we saw performances at the Britt Amphitheater by Tower of Power and the Doobie Brothers, we couldn’t recall any problems with unpleasant guests.
On the drive home the next day I thought about this incredibly successful and diverse music series based in the small town of Jacksonville. In addition to the popular music performers (name a well-known artist and they’ve probably played Britt), there is a classical music series as well as student concerts and workshops. From May through September, Britt Festival provides income and jobs locally to Jacksonville, Medford, Ashland, and the environs via tourist bucks. On our very brief turn-around trip, we spent nearly $300 (tickets, lodging, food, etc.) that went out of state.
Why couldn’t we have a similar festival here? Shasta County has no shortage of available outdoor space that could be turned into an amphitheater with parking. Redding is on Interstate 5, which tour buses fly down on their way from Portland to Sacramento, as well as being the crossroads of Highways 299 and 44: easy access for visitors from all parts of Northern California.
Yes, it’s hot here in the summer, but some well-placed misters would alleviate the worst of the heat. Wouldn’t the amphitheaters be used only in good weather and stand empty the rest of the year? Possibly – but so are baseball diamonds and football fields.
But don’t we already have enough concert venues? Well… we have the wonderful Cascade Theater, which holds 1000 people. And there is the much less wonderful Redding Convention Center, which seats around 2000 people, is designed to be multipurpose rather than dedicated to music, and has some truly awful acoustics. For a city of over 100,000 people, that is woefully inadequate. It should be embarrassing to City and County officials who are trying to promote Redding and Shasta County to out-of-area businesses.
I don’t have solutions or answers to how this might get off the ground – but the Britt Festival started small, with plywood stages and tin-can lights. We have local talent and entrepreneurs who would like to see the Redding performance scene promoted and made into a destination for music lovers.
How do we start?
