The Amphitheatre at Fair Park (planning/construction) Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre (1988–98) Starplex Amphitheatre (1999) Smirnoff Music Centre (2000–08) Superpages.com Center (2008–11) Gexa Energy Pavilion (2011–16) Starplex Pavilion (2017–18)
The venue opened as Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre on July 23, 1988,[2] with a concert by Rod Stewart. The outdoor covered amphitheater featured 7,500 seats under a pavilion and 12,500 general admission lawn seats.[3] After Coca-Cola's naming rights expired in 1998, the venue was known simply as Starplex Amphitheatre.
In 2000, naming rights were sold to the Smirnoffvodka company, as a result of a corporate sponsorship agreement with House of Blues. The center was then called Smirnoff Music Centre and The Music Centre at Fair Park (for concerts featuring underage performers).[4]
The name changed again in January 2008 to Superpages.com Center when naming rights were awarded to Superpages.com.[5]
The name has changed several times since then: to Gexa Energy Pavilion in 2011,[6] Starplex Pavilion in 2017.[7] and Dos Equis Pavilion in April 2018.[8]
Starplex was the site of the Lollapalooza festival tour cofounded by Perry Farrell from 1991 to 1995. The alternative music juggernaut would return each year to Starplex until 1997, when sales declined and the festival's tastemaking cache had faded. The various lineups included:
In subsequent years Starplex would often open each season with an Edgefest event instead of seeking a major name headliner.
In 1993 The Edge temporarily dropped the Edgefest moniker and put together the Edge Earth Day Concert on April 18, 1993, featuring The Tragically Hip, Dinosaur Jr., Jellyfish, Belly, 808 State and others. In subsequent years Edgefest continued with these lineups:
In 1997 headliners Widespread Panic dropped out of the H.O.R.D.E. tour at the last minute and a planned Texas stop was cancelled. Two of the planned headliners (Beck and Ben Folds Five) had played Starplex at Edgefest already in May.
Country music superstars were a regular feature at Starplex, with several artists booking return engagements throughout the 1990s. Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Steve Earle, Hank Williams Jr., Clint Black, Alabama, Dolly Parton, Brooks & Dunn and Dwight Yoakam were among the many country acts to regularly appear at Starplex in the 1990s. More recently, the Pavilion has welcomed acts like Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flatts, Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert and Chris Young.
Prince brought his Jam Of The Year tour to Starplex on August 9, 1997. The singer, backed by an all-new New Power Generation band, played a fast and loose set that included James Brown, Madhouse and Joan Osborne covers amid hits like "Little Red Corvette" and deep cuts like "The Cross" and "Strange Relationship."
Smirnoff Music Centre 2000–2008
After the naming rights to Starplex were sold to Smirnoff vodka in mid-2000, the venue dropped the Starplex moniker and was renamed Smirnoff Music Centre. The venue was sometimes billed as The Music Centre at Fair Park for all-ages shows which could not. for legal reasons, be sponsored by a producer or distributor of alcoholic beverages.
Vans Warped Tour, with an emphasis on punk, pop-punk and ska artists and skater culture, visited Smirnoff (and later Superpages.com Center) annually starting in 2000.
At the opening of the 2008 season the naming rights for Smirnoff Music Centre expired and the venue was renamed for Superpages.com, an online business directory based in Coppell, Texas. The British spelling of the word "Centre" was changed to the more common American "Center" at the same time. The Heart Of The City package tour with Mary J. Blige, The-Dream and Jay-Z was the first engagement at Superpages.com Center on April 12, 2008. The Glow In The Dark tour with Kanye West, Rihanna, N*E*R*D and Lupe Fiasco followed weeks later on May 1, 2008. The True Colors tour assembled Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett, The B-52's and others on a single bill June 22, 2008. 97.5 The Eagle presented a BFD festival on July 24, 2008, with Mötley Crüe, Papa Roach, Buckcherry and others. Mayhem Festival rolled into Superpages the next day with a bill including Disturbed, Slipknot, Underoath, Mastodon, Machine Head and other Ozzfest alumni. The Eagle brought another BFD festival to Superpages August 8, 2009 with Mötley Crüe, Godsmack and Drowning Pool. Mayhem Festival also returned August 15, 2009 with Marilyn Manson, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer and others. Mayhem returned August 13, 2010 with Rob Zombie, Korn, Hatebreed, Lamb of God and others. Uproar Festival followed September 10, 2010 with Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold and others.
On April 21, 2018, the Foo Fighters played their first show in Dallas in over a decade at the Dos Equis Pavilion on their Concrete and Gold Tour.[11] On June 2, 2023 Janet Jackson played to a sold out crowd at the venue on her Together Again tour.
Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with their first three albums Black Sabbath, Paranoid and Master of Reality (1971). Following Osbourne's departure in 1979, the band underwent multiple line-up changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout their history.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English musician and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adopted the nickname "Prince of Darkness".
Zachary Phillip Wylde is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and as the founder, lead guitarist, lead singer, songwriter and producer of the heavy metal band Black Label Society.
Ozzfest was an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband Ozzy Osbourne, both of whom also organised each yearly tour with their son Jack Osbourne, and was held almost annually between 1996 and 2018. The Ozzfest tour featured bands of a variety of genres within heavy metal and hard rock, including alternative metal, thrash metal, industrial metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, deathcore, nu metal, death metal, post-hardcore, gothic metal and black metal. Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath played the tour several times over the years.
Monsters of Rock is a hard rock and heavy metal music festival. It was originally held annually in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996, taking place every year except 1989 and 1993. It later branched into other locations such as the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the United States, and Russia.
Edgefest was an annual outdoor rock festival in Canada. It was founded by staff members of Toronto radio station CFNY-FM. From 1987 to 2015, the festival was held every year in the summer. The festival was most frequently held on Canada Day at Molson Park in Barrie, Ontario or a venue in Toronto. The festival featured predominantly Canadian rock bands. During its 29-year operation, the festival featured more than 300 performers. As of 2015, it was the longest running rock festival in Canada.
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Pure Rubbish was an American rock band from Houston active from late 1995 to April 2003. The band's moniker was lifted from Mick Jagger's published opinion about the 1960s rock band Herman's Hermits. Pure Rubbish had three records released between 1998 and 2001 and also recorded a debut album produced by Mike Clink titled Glamorous Youth (2001) at Rumbo Recorders that never saw an official release. The band was signed to Sharon Osbourne’s record label, Divine Recordings / Priority Records.
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↑ Ricciardi, Tiney; Wilonsky, Robert (January 4, 2017). "Amphitheater's name hits rewind". The Dallas Morning News. A. H. Belo Corporation. Retrieved February 10, 2017– via PressReader.
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