Ford Amphitheater brings in hundreds for soft opening event ahead of packed opening weekend

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The Ford Amphitheater held a private, soft opening event featuring multiple musical acts and speakers, to officially christen the venue into Southern Colorado, ahead of their sold out opening weekend with One Republic.

The venue brought in a heavy crowd on Tuesday afternoon, with School of Rock performing from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., along with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Afterwards a list of speakers including a priest, the founder of Venu Inc. which is the the group that helped spark the venue's construction and funding, as well as Mayor Yemi Mobolade and others addressed the crowd.

Then from 8:30 p.m. to about 9:50 p.m. Phil Vassar played for the crowd, many of whom stayed through a bit of rain that came during the string of speakers.

Many in attendance expressed their happiness and satisfaction with how the venue looked in it's grand reveal.

"The music quality is great, you know, great sound systems, pretty nice overall." remarked Alexander Pinkstaff, who came with his wife and child.

A group of local high school teens, explained they were excited to see a venue close to home, instead of having to drive north toward Denver.

"I'm really excited for the One Republic show." said one of the girls, who will be attending the opening weekend with the Colorado Springs-based band.

Others said the food offered by vendors tasted great, and some couldn't get over the stunning backdrop of the Front Range, behind the venue's stage, which was highlighted by a golden sunset.

"It's absolutely beautiful. I love it. Beautiful location." said Tiffany Brown, who was there Tuesday evening with her husband.

However, getting to the venue to check out that view, took a bit of effort for some. Like Tyson Marsh, who came with three others in two separate cars.

"We went over to Bass Pro Shop, and we found good parking over there, but we were still pretty early. We were here about 15 minutes before the gates opened." explained Marsh. "You know, it was like about a ten minute walk to get over here." he added.

However, others arrived well after the first show ended, around 6 p.m on Tuesday, and say they fared just fine.

"We went to one parking lot, and they told us to just go to the next one, [and then] they said they had a few open spots, so it really wasn't too much searching." said Pinkstaff.

Some, like Marsh, still wonder if things will still be as easy during bigger weekends like the one ahead.

"I'm curious where people are going to end up parking at, like, you know, local businesses getting frustrated, folks taking their spots and things like that." Marsh said.

The impact of the sound from the venue on surrounding neighbors and apartment buildings have remained a concern, however with the private event only drawing in about two-thirds of the venue's capacity, it was unclear how the sound traveled.

KRDO13 crew members on scene noticed that during performances, the music was rather subdued from the adjacent parking lot from the North Entrance to the venue, but could not further inspect the sound from all angles around the venue location.

One Republic kicks off the opening weekend with shows each day from Friday, August 9, through Sunday, August 11.