{"id":22125,"date":"2020-05-30T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/regional\/york-boulevard-parkade-is-being-turned-into-a-temporary-open-air-music-venue\/"},"modified":"2022-11-28T19:48:34","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T19:48:34","slug":"york-boulevard-parkade-is-being-turned-into-a-temporary-open-air-music-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/hamilton\/york-boulevard-parkade-is-being-turned-into-a-temporary-open-air-music-venue\/","title":{"rendered":"York Boulevard Parkade is being turned into a temporary open-air music venue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In exciting news for music lovers and concert-goers, the City of Hamilton has approved an initiative that will see the top level of the York Boulevard Parkade \u2013 across from the Hamilton Farmers\u2019 Market \u2013 turned into a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespec.com\/news\/hamilton-region\/2020\/05\/28\/downtown-york-boulevard-parking-garage-to-be-used-as-rooftop-concert-venue.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">temporary open-air music venue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>The proposal was brought to city council and was approved in a 14-2 vote. From here, an open call will be put out to interested potential operators who can convert and run the upper level parkade space as a performance venue and book live music.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The show must go on! Hamilton has approved allowing the top level of our downtown parking garage to be turned into a temporary, open air performance venue, in order to support our music and performing arts industry <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/musiccity?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#musiccity<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V9TRjOxQLN\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/V9TRjOxQLN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jason Thorne (@JasonThorne@Mastodon.Social) (@JasonThorne_RPP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JasonThorne_RPP\/status\/1266516317559021569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May 29, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The news has already thrilled those in the city who really miss live events, because let\u2019s be real: we can all binge Netflix all we want, but there\u2019s no real replacement for the singular energy of gathering with others for a shared live experience.<\/p>\n<p>However, the current realities of COVID-19 and the dangers surrounding large gatherings mean that most of the live entertainment industry will be some of the last pieces of society and the economy to come back to normal.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the arts are taking a particularly huge hit at the hands of this pandemic.<\/p>\n\n<p>Thankfully, Hamilton \u2013 as a burgeoning hub for arts &amp; culture \u2013 has been working to find more immediate means of supporting the return of live experiences in ways that put safety first and allow for proper social distancing. That\u2019s where the York Boulevard Parkade comes in.<\/p>\n<p>Once some live events are able to occur again under controlled, socially-distanced ways, the York Boulevard Parkade will be converted into space where gatherings are allowed to occur safely and Hamiltonians can once again enjoy the thrill of a live experience together.<\/p>\n<p>Not so fast, though: the province still needs to relax its restrictions on large gatherings before that happens, and that could still be weeks or months off.<\/p>\n<p>But according to Jason Thorne, Hamilton\u2019s general managerr of city planning and economic development, the plan is for the York Boulevard Parkade music venue to be ready to jump right in once that happens.<\/p>\n<p>The idea has been met with lots of praise and excitement on social media from local champions excited by the concept&#8217;s possibilities, but the whole thing has its critics as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we\u2019re allowed to have events that big venues will want to open,\u201d tweeted Hamilton cultural advocate <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FreiburgerJer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeremy Freiburger<\/a>. \u201cSo why would the city open a space to compete with the existing and already damaged venue market?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of the idea, Hamilton? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n<p><em>Lead image courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JasonThorne_RPP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@JasonThorneRPP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In exciting news for music lovers and concert-goers, the City of Hamilton has approved an initiative that will see the top level of the York Boulevard Parkade \u2013 across from the Hamilton Farmers\u2019 M...","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":22126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8065],"tags":[2540,1662,4999,5203,577,49,283,19,20,3086,2170,805,545,5552,3479,3131,5267,3244,5553],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/parkade.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27880,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22125\/revisions\/27880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}