The Bowl 2.0

NOT-FINAL FRONTIERS: Up in our beloved Santa Barbara Bowl, the Eagle has landed, and with it another onward-upward chapter in the evolution of a venue. Recent years have brought a steady succession of major renovations and refinements at the Bowl, whose fund-raising efforts keep flowering. For VIPs, the new exclusive terrace area allows special people a lofty perch above the plebeian din, with a stage view. For VIPs, plebeians, and anyone with a working bladder, the arrival of generous bathrooms to replace the funky models of old felt like a divine intervention to longtime Bowlers.

Now comes the most visually imposing and most expensive renovation to date, the “spaceship,” as locals are tending to call it. The massive Pavilion fixture, made of stone and copper and looming over the stage, allows for bigger acts with bigger production requirements at the Bowl, and will also allow for classical and opera programing, according to Bowl honchos. Smirking UFO or NASA references aside, the Pavilion is aesthetically pleasing, an organic and satisfying answer to the problem of connecting the venue’s WPA-era origins and the tug of the future.

For newcomers to town – a town bubbling over with newcomers and new wealth – the Pavilion may seem an innocent addition. For those of us with a deep history here, it feels disorienting in ways both invigorating and bizarre. It’s like a wild face lift you woke up to discover in the mirror one morning. This scribe began going to Bowl shows in the mid-’70s, while in high school, and over the decades have watched its initially tentative and then determined, moneyed push towards its current status as one of America’s finest outdoor venues.