Evansville mayor says city is in 'early' talks with developer about Mesker Amphitheatre
EVANSVILLE – Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry says the city is in talks with a “private developer” concerning the future of the long-abandoned Mesker Amphitheatre.
During her State of the City address Tuesday, Terry said her administration is in the “early stages of a conversation” about the possibility of revitalizing Mesker, which has largely sat dormant and left to rot since 2009.
“I received a lot of questions about Mesker Amphitheatre. And I’ve said the same answer: ‘We don't have any plans,’” she said. “But if a private developer reached out with an interest in revitalizing Mesker, I would take that meeting enthusiastically.”
Now that has apparently happened. She said the talks have centered around the “feasibility and extent of what can be done” at the 72-year-old amphitheater.
She didn’t identify the developer or offer any specifics on the talks. Her spokesman, Joe Atkinson, told the Courier & Press the city didn’t have anything to add beyond what Terry shared in the speech.
“While I don’t want to over promise, I am cautiously – and I mean cautiously – optimistic we’ll have news in the coming months,” Terry said.
Mesker Amphitheatre has a long list of problems
Whatever that news turns out to be, it would likely involve significant work.
Mesker hasn’t hosted a high-profile concert since the Doobie Brothers left town 15 years ago, and a decades-long pattern of neglect has left it in rough shape. When the Courier & Press toured the venue in February, it looked largely the same as it did during a similar walkthrough in 2019, only even more dilapidated.
The seats in the large concrete pavilion have been stripped out and replaced with standing water, cracks and large weeds that grow to the size of small trees in the summers. Graffiti covers the brick walls around the equally cracked stage, and the hulking and rusting steel cover is inoperable and outdated, making it impossible for the venue to host modern acts in its current condition.
Then there are the bathrooms. A 2012 report commissioned by the city said Mesker would not only need to update them, but build about 50 more.
The biggest issue, though, is ADA compliance. The pavilion’s steep grade doesn’t even sniff at modern standards. Fixing that issue would likely costs millions of dollars, the report claimed.
And none of that addresses the amphitheater’s neighbor. Mesker Park Zoo Executive Director Erik Beck told the Courier & Press in February that any revamping would likely have to include a massive sound wall to protect animals from the noise the venue would pump out.
“What we know about caring for animals nowadays versus what we knew in the 1950s and ’60s is very different,” he said. “So would we put a venue that’s gonna push out 200 decibels in close proximity to wild animals?”
Still, fueled by history and nostalgia, many residents have pushed for the venue to reopen in some capacity since its doors were officially locked in 2012. Former Mayor Lloyd Winnecke often said he wanted the venue to reopen, a wish that is now apparently shared by his predecessor.
Mesker has hosted everyone from Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell to Jimmy Buffett and Ozzy Osborne. Neil Young, Tony Bennett, Aerosmith and Harry Belafonte have all walked the stage, too, and Bob Dylan played the second-to-last concert there in 2008.
“I know for many," Terry said Tuesday, "this is a crown jewel of Evansville."
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville mayor says city is in talks over Mesker Amphitheatre
