Details on Live Nation’s Budweiser Stage temporary closure and renovation

Toronto has been hosting concerts on Lake Ontario since the old Ontario Place Forum with its funky rotating stage opened on May 21, 1971. It was torn down and eclipsed by the bran-new and much bigger Molson Amphitheatre (now Budweiser Stage) in May 1995. Although the venue has served the city and acts very well, it is 30 years old and despite renovations and improvements, much about the live music environment has changed

Now that Ontario Place is being completely made over, it makes sense for Live Nation to take this opportunity to do something with the amphitheatre. The official plans released by the government talk about something called “Live Nation Amphitheatre,” a project that will require the venue to close for an undetermined time.

Here’s an artist’s rendering of what we may be looking at.

While construction continues around Ontario Place, Budweiser Stage will remain in operation until at least the end of the 2027 season. Then it will be closed and re-imagined into a combination four-season indoor-outdoor space on the same land footprint that has the potential of hosting many, many more shows from November to April. I hear that the all-season indoor section of the building could hold up to 9,000 people. It will obviously be configurable for other audiences.