Students in Youth Orchestra Salinas had been busy getting ready for their winter concert on Friday, Dec. 12 when organizers learned they would need a new venue less than two weeks before showtime.
The original venue was a popular multi-purpose space owned by the City of Salinas, Sherwood Hall. The 50-year-old venue has folding seats on moveable risers so that it can transform from a theater to an open floor plan and host different types of events from cultural performances with a stage to community gatherings with small group tables, and more.
YOSAL’s show needed a theater-like seating configuration, but city staff discovered issues with the riser seating as they prepared to get the venue ready.
“It got stuck as the staff was making a shift from a full riser to a flat floor,” says Kristan Lundquist, Salinas’ library and community services director.
Lundquist says the city’s team contacted about five event organizers that had rented the venue in December and January, including YOSAL, to inform them about the issue and aid them to find a different venue. (YOSAL successfully relocated to the Fox Theater downtown, and is set to perform at 5pm on Dec. 12; see details on p. 30.)
This isn’t the first time the city had issues with the seating in Sherwood Hall. A similar situation happened in 2017 and was repaired a year later. Lundquist said those repairs guaranteed another 10-15 years of use.
While city officials wait for a contractor to evaluate the issue and find out what repairs are needed now, the venue won’t be able to host large gatherings. “The events that are really impacted are the large-scale kind of events that need that theater seating,” Lundquist notes.
With the risers, the center can host events with up to 1,500 people. Any event larger than 700 people gets a theater-like setting, for a temporary size limit.
The site is still available for floor events that don’t require a stage, such as the State of the City address or Breakfast with Santa.
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