Carowinds’ summer bet on its abandoned concert venue
Before being abandoned, it was the Carolinas’ signature outdoor concert venue in the ’80s. Now, the long-dormant Carowinds Paladium — an amphitheater surrounded by a theme park — is poised for a comeback.
Carowinds Paladium: empty, abandoned, ready for her close-up
This evening, July 5, 2024, the Carowinds theme park in Charlotte, N.C. will welcome guests to its concert venue, known as the Paladium, for the first time since before the pandemic, and with its highest-profile performing artist in nearly a decade. LeAnn Rimes will kick off the park’s Summer Music Fest: an experiment for Carowinds and a study in the restoration of abandoned places.
These themes echoed loudly across the 13,000 empty seats of the Paladium — as do the ghosts of A-list musicians who performed here in its heyday — as Ryan Allen, director of live entertainment at Carowinds, toured Attractions Magazine and other media invitees through the still-in-progress Paladium three weeks prior to opening night.
“She’s real ugly right now,” Allen lightheartedly remarked of the venue with infectious enthusiasm. “You might see some stuff that you’re like, ‘What’s Carowinds doing?’ The answer is we’re cleaning up!”
The Paladium’s entry plaza was still a catch-all storage area on the night of our visit. Remnants of the park’s past unceremoniously lined the asphalt: holiday décor, retired park benches, piles of delivery palettes, and the like. As a few reporters snapped photos, Allen was quick to joke, “There’s a dumpster if you need a picture of a dumpster.”
As Allen and our group ventured into the venue proper and onto the stage, the “urban explorer” vibe of it all was palpable: chipped paint on handrails, defunct production fixtures … Allen mentioned that when his team first started the venue’s refresh, they were greeted by raccoons.
It wasn’t always like this; let’s turn back the clock.
The Carolinas’ signature concert amphitheater
When Carowinds opened the Paladium in 1975 — just two years after the park itself debuted — the outdoor concert venue was the only of its kind in the Charlotte area. There was no Blockbuster Pavilion (which opened in 1991, according to Charlotte Magazine, and is now named PNC Music Pavilion), nor was there Uptown Amphitheater (2009, now Skyla Credit Union Amphitheater). There certainly wasn’t Ericsson Stadium (1996, now Bank of America Stadium), home to the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC, and the occasional mega-concert (like Beyoncé).
No, back in 1975, the Carowinds Paladium was in a class of its own, and was frequently visited by chart-topping musicians. Over the next several decades, the Paladium hosted concerts headlined by the likes of Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, The Temptations, David Lee Roth, Sting, Mary J. Blige, and Aaron Carter, among many others, according to Concert Archives and Carowinds. The late Jimmy Buffett was practically a regular, performing at Carowinds on at least 15 separate occasions, Spectrum News 1 reported.
Photo courtesy of Carowinds
As some of the aforementioned other venues established themselves in the area and Carowinds’ ownership changed hands several times (from Paramount to Cedar Fair, which just days ago merged with Six Flags), the Paladium’s prominence in the local music scene waned as the park’s portfolio of coasters expanded. Still, the Paladium never shuttered for good, hosting lower-profile bands with some frequency, as well as an annual Christian music day. Like many things, the pandemic put a halt to the Paladium. It hasn’t been open to the public since 2019, having in recent years been only used for private events like cheer competitions or internal purposes like entertainment rehearsals.
That’s about to change — maybe for good.
It’s time to play the music
“The concert series is really going to — we hope — reenergize this space,” Allen told us as we continued our Paladium tour, now in the shadow of a giant pumpkin prop from Scarowinds. “Part of the joy and beauty of having a concert series in a theme park is: there’s a theme park.”
Indeed, the Paladium is surrounded on multiple sides by the track of Fury 325, a roller coaster reaching speeds of 95 mph. Concert attendees may be capping off their evening with music after a day full of coasters like Thunder Striker (formerly Intimidator), family rides like those found in the park’s Camp Snoopy area, or the water slides and wave pools of the Carolina Harbor water park (attached to Carowinds and included with park admission).
Among its theme park brethren, Carowinds is certainly not the only property to leave large spaces unused, from the 2,000-seat amphitheater currently sitting empty in Toon Lagoon at Universal Islands of Adventure to Disney’s infamous River Country water park, which sat abandoned for nearly two decades before finally being bulldozed.
“The hope is that we can see how our guests use this space and what they want in this space,” Allen said of the Paladium. “What we’re hoping is that we can learn what our guests need this year and use that for future planning for this space.”
The gung-ho, uncertain nature of the initiative almost seems like the plot of a Muppet movie. Let’s put on a show and save the theater! Looking out into the 13,000 empty seats, it’s clear this is an underdog story one can’t help but root for, a tale of abandoned places and repurposed spirits — and whose ending may be determined by guests’ reception this summer.
‘New learning for all of us’
With Carowinds Summer Music Fest, the park’s leadership is testing the waters before committing to a long-term investment into the venue.
“The things that this space needs are significant,” Allen remarked. “If our concert series program needs to shift in some way, shape, or form next year, we want to make sure we’re making the right choices for that.”
In the short-term, though, Carowinds is sprucing things up, from the nearby refreshment stands to merchandise windows, as well as adding a new biergarten outside of the Paladium’s entrance. In partnership with Event Enterprises, the park is also installing two large screens just for this summer’s events. “You might be able to see LeAnn Rimes’ pores,” Allen said of the pristine definition of the screens.
Crucially, all of this summer’s concerts are included with park admission. Carowinds will have different tiers of seating procedures in place, including wristband retrieval for pit access, but again, the level of guests’ enthusiasm is an unknown factor in this experiment.
“The really fun part about our concert series is that we’re all going to be learning about it together,” Allen said. “It’s not like a parade. We’ve done a parade. We know how to do a parade backward and forward. This is new learning for all of us.”
In addition to Rimes, artists throughout the summer will include Bret Michaels, Sugar Ray, Flo Rida, and more. Beyond the Paladium, smaller stages within the park will host bands, as well. As Allen concluded, “The entire park is part of the party.”
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