#26 – Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
633 N 130th St, Bonner Springs, KS 66012
Cost: $$
Features: Concessions, GA pit, reserved seating, lawn seating.
Good for: Big artists on summer nights.
Tip: Get dinner before the concert at the Legends Outlets.
This 18,000-seat open-air amphitheater is a located just outside of Kansas City – near the Legends Outlet Mall. In addition to the 75 designer stores, Legends is home to many Kansas City attractions, including Great Wolf Lodge, Sporting Kansas City stadium and the Kansas Speedway.
About Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
Apparently Providence Medical Center Amphitheater has changed names about five times since it opened 1984 – Sandstone Center, Verizon Wireless, Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone, Cricket Wireless and now, Providence Medical Center. Longtime locals apparently still call it Sandstone.
This year’s major events at Providence Medical Center, included Pentatonix, Ted Nugent, Glass Animals, Chance the Rapper, Korn & Rob Zombie and Luke Bryan.
Overall, I think it’s an okay outdoor venue for a big artist. It’s big, it’s outside, but the ambiance just doesn’t do it for me. It just screams 80’s theme park to me?
Of the 18,000-seat capacity, there are 3,100 reserved seats and multiple open-air suites (GA pit and the lawn). The GA pit is jammed full, and it almost always becomes a mosh pit. (I guess I’m getting old, because it doesn’t look like fun to me) The lawn is where the cheapest seats are, but you sacrifice sight and sound quality, so I always go with reserved seats.
Pricing is relatively cheap at Providence Medical Center. We paid $30 each for our seats, plus $10 parking. There are concession stands that are decently priced, too, or at least not as bad at Royals games.
Our Night at Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
Of the outdoor concert venues, I prefer Starlight Theater and CrossroadsKC, but this year PMC was host to Buzz Beachball, a two-day alternative festival.
We got tickets for just one of the two days and saw 12 bands. My favorites of the night: Hippo Campus, Marian Hill and Spoon (!). They had two stages set up for the festival – the main stage and one in the lawn.
I’ve been to just one other concert at PMC – Modest Mouse and Brand New. Even though it’s not my favorite place, as long as they keep booking some of my favorite bands, I’ll keep coming back. xx, Libbie.
