CityLights Stays Dark

Denver’s CityLights Pavilion will skip the 2007 summer concert season due to scheduling conflicts and could face a similar fate next year, according to a recent announcement by owners Kroenke Sports Enterprises and Live Nation.

"A number of logistical issues will make CityLights Pavilion very difficult to operate over the next two summers," Kroenke Sports executive vice president Paul Andrews said in a statement. "The fan experience needs to be at a high standard or it is not worth doing."

The 4,500-seat CityLights Pavilion sits on the grounds of the Pepsi Center, which is hosting a mid-summer run of Cirque du Soleil’s "Corteo" this year and the Democratic National Convention in 2008. Both events are expected to draw thousands of additional people to the grounds on which the amphitheatre is located, the statement said.

Kroenke spokesman Brian Kitts told the Denver Post the DNC could pose an even greater logistical problem than this summer’s Cirque shows, and said that although Kroenke and LN would reevaluate plans for the shed in 2008, "it’s most likely that it will not be open next year."

In the summer of 2006 CityLights hosted artists including Black Eyed Peas, The Fray, O.A.R., Kenny Rogers, and John Fogerty, among others.

Now that Live Nation has taken control of the Coors Amphitheatre in suburban Denver following the purchase of House of Blues, the company has plenty of booking options to go along with Red Rocks.