Niagara Shed Proposed

Ontario could have a $50 million amphitheatre in its future near the Niagara border.

The councilors of Niagara-on-the-Lake, a tourist destination near the U.S. border about 15 miles north of Niagara Falls, voted unanimously to approve the project in principle January 14th.

The amphitheatre would serve as a summer home for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The organizations, collectively known as Project Niagara, recently reached an agreement with Parks Canada to explore plans to build an amphitheatre on the Battlefield of Fort George National Historic Site – a War of 1812 landing zone. The shed would host an annual 12-week music festival.

The land is leased by the Department of National Defence and has been closed to the public since 1905, according to the Standard of St. Catharines. It is also home to sewage-treatment plants that would need to be relocated.

Project Niagara visited several amphitheatres, including the Bethel Woods Center For The Arts in New York, to get ideas for audience demographics, programming and food services, the Standard said.

The research paid off, with the councilors giving the project a unanimous thumbs-up and one councilman reportedly saying, "I have never seen a better organized presentation in my 10 years on council."

The councilman added that the music festival should be "our number one priority" for the next couple of years, the paper said. Project Niagara hopes to have the site ready in time for the town’s bicentennial celebrations of the War of 1812.

The shed’s proposed capacity is unclear.