Pasadena POPS’ new venue plans unveiled

The Pasadena Symphony Association, having recently announced it was relocating its Pasadena POPS summer concert series from La Cañada’s Descanso Gardens to a new venue adjacent to the Rose Bowl, unveiled its plans in more detail at a press conference last Friday.

Pasadena Symphony Association CEO Paul Zdunek said the move will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs, as well as return the program to its home city.

“The new Pasadena POPS series will continue to provide the quality of unique musical entertainment paired with a tradition of picnic-dining with your family and friends that you have come to expect, but within the backdrop of the majestic San Gabriel Mountains,” Zdunek said.

The new venue will occupy the lawn space just outside the south-facing, main entrance of the Rose Bowl stadium, Zdunek said.

At the press conference symphony officials showed renderings of an acoustical band shell that will be erected and then disassembled for each of the four concerts planned for 2010. The venue can accommodate as many as 4,000 people, more than twice as many as Descanso Gardens, which was its home for 15 summers.

In addition, the new venue will include an area for families with young children. It will also offer multiple catered food options for those concert-goers who do not want to pack a picnic dinner, Zdunek said.

The Pasadena Symphony Association has enjoyed a strong relationship with Descanso Gardens, Zdunek noted, and the decision to pull out of La Cañada was a difficult one. The current economic recession, however, meant that the association had to take some cost-cutting measures.

This year, production costs for Pasadena POPS at Descanso Gardens topped $700,000, Zdunek said. At the Rose Bowl, production costs will be approximately $300,000.

“It is going to be a different experience than Descanso,” Zdunek said. “That is what we finally had to come to terms with. We couldn’t recreate Descanso, which is a special and unique venue. Once we dealt with that, we were looking for a fun, outside venue that would be dramatic. And that is how we landed with the Rose Bowl.”

David Brown, executive director at Descanso Gardens, said the concert series had outgrown the gardens, and it was the right time for the Pasadena Symphony Association to seek out a bigger venue within Pasadena.

“One of the things that was always difficult is that they were the Pasadena POPS, they were dependent on Pasadena businesses and people for their funding, and yet they performed in La Cañada.”

Descanso Gardens is already considering several possible musical programming options for next summer, Brown said.

“There will be music at Descanso in 2010,” Brown said. “We are planning now for next summer two, and possible three, different kinds of music series. So there will be plenty of music.”