Concord Pavilion (formerly referred to as the Sleep Train Pavilion and Chronicle Pavilion) is a Concord, California amphitheater. It is owned and operated by the City of Concord through Live Nation. The Pavilion can hold up to 12,500 people and was opened as the Concord Pavilion in 1975. It is used for concerts, community events (including an annual jazz festival) and graduations from local high school.
Architect Frank Gehry and Peter Walker, the landscape architect, designed the Pavilion. Gehry also planned the renovations in the mid-1990s, including more parking spaces and seats. The venue has hosted and continues to do so to this day, several professional musical acts over the years of its operation. Bing Crosby performed his last American concert at the Pavilion. The appearance of Lawrence Welk at the Concord Pavilion on June 13, 1982, was billed as his farewell performance. After leaving a show at the Pavilion by Huey Lewis and the News, iconic concert promoter Bill Graham was killed in a helicopter crash in 1991, having just spoken to the band about arranging a fundraiser for the victims of that year's fire in the Oakland Hills; Graham's production company, Bill Graham Presents (BGP), had been the Concord Pavilion's booking agent since at least 1985.
Bill Graham Presents took over the facility's operations in February 2000 in an arrangement with the City of Concord. Shortly afterward, his name was changed to the Chronicle Pavilion at Concord after the San Francisco Newspaper Agency's business director, bought the naming rights. BGP was purchased in 2000, along with its parent, SFX Promotions, by Clear Channel Communications; in 2005, Clear Channel would spin off its concert operations into Live Nation, which operates the Pavilion to this day.
After the California-based mattress retailer (now a Houston, Texas-based company) bought the naming rights, the Pavilion changed its name in April 2006 when it became the Sleep Train Pavilion; by 2017 the store merged into Mattress Firm.
In December 2013, the name of the Pavilion was changed to the Concord Pavilion as part of a 10-year contract renewal between Live Nation and the City of Concord.
The First Battle of the Bands was held in 2006 for students from high school, middle school, and elementary school, and the winner was a high school band, Poster Boy.
