Mayor Lester Miller said he is looking further ahead, with a new hotel and outdoor space planned to be built near the venue.
MACON, Ga. — Macon was buzzing all night Sunday with its first concert at Atrium Health Amphitheater.
ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd headlined the opening night, drawing a crowd of over 6,300 to the venue. More than 100 employees met the crowd, scanning tickets, conducting patrols and providing labor concessions.
Amphitheater general manager David Aiello said the team is celebrating a big win. He credits the first show as a success by the end of the night.
“In the end, the parking lot was all empty in 25 to 30 minutes, which is usually unheard of when you have that many people in the building,” Aiello said.
His team won't be able to celebrate for long, as an even bigger show is scheduled for next week. They are already back to work.
“It's about how do we create more signs? How do we move people around and get people to the other side where there's much less traffic? There's demand over there. It’s smoother because there’s less,” he said.
As the team begins fine-tuning its next concert, Mayor Lester Miller is planning even further ahead.
“It's like an area like Battery Park in Atlanta outside of Trust Park. We can fill it up so people can enjoy outdoor activities before the game, like the amphitheater or pickleball.” You can,” he said of the area. Near the old JC Penney.
Miller said the next phase will begin with building a hotel at the mall where concertgoers can stay overnight on Tuesday or another day.
“There are a lot of good companies interested in the site. A lot of hotel owners have reached out to us and said, 'Where do you want to put it? Where do you want to put it?'” Miller said.
Timeline:
If you'd like to see an overview of the construction, Piedmont Construction, which helped build the amphitheater, has published a time-lapse on its website. Click here to see for yourself.
