Big milestone completed in $4.7 million rebuilding project
Staff Report
While taking advantage of a break in the weather on Thursday morning, construction crews installed six new steel lighting columns at Solvang Festival Theater, utilizing a 350-ton crane to accomplish a huge milestone in Theaterfest’s $4.7 million rebuilding project.
The columns, each weighing 12,000 pounds and rising more than 50 feet above the theater, will provide for safer, structurally sound lighting towers for the theater and for the lighting technicians who operate from the top of the towers during performances.
The Theater rebuilding project, which commenced in September and is slated to be completed this July, will accomplish these key elements:
- Ensure structural integrity for generations to come
- Upgrade electrical, lighting, and sound technology
- Assure safety for audience, stage crew and staff
- Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act
- Reduce wind and noise for the audience
Solvang Theaterfest launched the Imagine $4.7 Million Capital Campaign to renovate major parts of the theater in 2018. The community has responded generously and brought the theater to over 90 percent of its initial goal. Increased costs of construction, however, have resulted in adjusting the goal to just over $5 million. Completion of this project will bring the theater to today’s standards and ensure quality live entertainment in the Santa Ynez Valley for generations to come.
For more information, contact Solvang Theaterfest Executive Director Scott Coe at exec.director@solvangtheaterfest.org.
