Two months from first show, Bangor concert venue overhaul underway

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - In less than two months, the sounds of concert music will return to the Bangor Waterfront when the newly renamed Maine Savings Amphitheater opens for the 2022 summer season.

Concertgoers will notice some big changes.

“We’ve been through a bit of a renaissance since last October,” said Alex Gray, Waterfront Concerts.

Gray showed TV5 around the new look venue Monday.

Gray said: “You know, we end up with 215 bathrooms on property. The distribution is 66% women’s, 34% men’s. You know, we’ve tried to socially engineer around really all the problem points that we’ve read.

“6,405 brand new Hussey seats, wider cupholders, they flip up, incredible amounts of elevation changes throughout the venue for impeccable sight lines.

“Almost everything we’ve done here is fan facing. For years, we were doing a lot artists facing, this is all fan facing.

“They won’t recognize the venue.”

The business was awarded around $10 million in federal funding to keep going through the pandemic. None of that money can be spent on this work.

“This is something that we funded in 2019. When we paused the project in 2019, the basis of that was to really to protect jobs to make sure we had enough funds to to keep people, and that’s what saved our stages was it was really to save the people on the stages. Not specifically the individual stages themselves that are or improve them,” said Gray.

June 23 will be the first concert of the year.

“We had opportunities to have other shows, but we were very specific that we wouldn’t take shows prior to that. Contractors are already working, you know, six to seven days a week,” said Gray.

On Monday, Waterfront Concerts announced that Aerosmith will be playing in Bangor this summer.

“Eighteen total shows that we’ve got on, you know, on budget this year. What we have announced, I think we’re short three, four, or five right now,” he said.

With two months to go, a lot of work remains, but he’s confident when people are allowed back in, they’ll like that they see.

“I think they’re going to be absolutely blown away with the improvements that the facility has undergone,” said Gray.

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