Breaking News
The Hollywood Bowl is going silent for its entire summer season — for the first time in the iconic venue’s nearly 100 year history. Thanks a lot, coronavirus.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, which manages the Bowl, announced Wednesday there will be no summer concerts due to the pandemic.
It’s pretty miraculous, in a sad way … the Hollywood Bowl has never gone more than 2 weeks without a live performance during the last 100 summers. Let that sink in.
The Bowl has been shut down since last month … with no end in sight.
The music never stopped at the Hollywood Bowl during other times of crisis — World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and even the Great Depression — but COVID-19 is a different beast.
Heck, even floods, fires and riots couldn’t stop the bands from playing on … but those weren’t respiratory pandemics. The scrapped season is also gonna do a number on the L.A. Phil’s bottom line … the orchestra says it’s facing an $80 million budget shortfall.
The Bowl’s been in business since 1916, when it attracted its first crowd for a community theater rendition of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”
The venue was a welcome distraction during the Depression — or so we’ve heard. Good to know, ’cause something tells us we’re gonna need its charm again, ASAP.