The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park isn’t waiting for its 2026 summer season to kick off the $85 million bayside venue’s 5th anniversary, which will feature return performances by Buddy Guy, Kool & The Gang, the Beach Boys and Gipsy Kings — plus The Shell debuts of St. Vincent, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Wynonna Judd and Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
Between March 20 and June 12, no fewer than 13 pre-season concerts are scheduled at The Shell. They will include return performances by James Taylor, the Avett Brothers and Classic Albums Live, along with The Shell debuts of Paul Simon, Ethel Cain, Yungblud and One Direction alum Louis Tomlinson. The season officially opens with a June 29 concert by the San Diego Symphony — which owns and operates The Shell — and violin star Stefan Jackiw.
Season ticket packages go on sale today Also today, The Shell will host its free annual Picnic at the Park concert, which will be headlined by award-winning San Diego singer-songwriter Gregory Page and his band. It is being retitled Picnic at the Park Presented by Southwest Airlines to reflect a new partnership between Southwest and the symphony that will be officially unveiled at today’s concert.
“We’re excited to announce a multi-year partnership with Southwest Airlines as the official airline of the San Diego Symphony. Their commitment to San Diego and dedication to customer service make them the ideal partner to welcome guests from near and far to our world-class venues,” said Casey Patterson, the symphony’s director of corporate partnerships.
This year’s mix of legendary and rising artists at The Shell has remained steady since the San Diego Symphony opened the panoramic venue in August 2021. The venue’s launch came in a year when many concert halls, theaters, nightclubs and amphitheaters across the nation were still shuttered or only partly operational in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
“This will be our fifth year at The Shell and our sixth season there,” said San Diego Symphony Vice President for Marketing and Communications Craig Hall.
“We had over 125,000 people come to the venue our first year,” he continued. “For our 2025 season, which ran from June to October, we had over 192,000 people attend concerts at The Shell. If we include the ‘bumper time’ of early June — before the official kickoff to our summer season on the last weekend of June — and the month of November, there were an additional 36,200 people who attended concerts during that time last year.”
Those totals include attendance at performances for which The Shell was rented by outside promoters, including Live Nation and AEG/Goldenvoice, the world’s two biggest concert promoters.
It does not include the attendance at the approximately 35 private corporate events that are booked each year at The Shell by the San Diego Padres’ hospitality and events division, Finest Collective. Under the auspices of the Padres, The Shell has hosted concerts by such artists as Sting, Billy Joel, Dierks Bentley and Sammy Hagar that were not open to the public.
“The Padres are our corporate-events partners, so they book all the private events for us at The Shell,” said former San Diego Symphony Vice President for Artistic Administration and Audience development Lea Slusher. On Feb. 6, the symphony named her as its Executive Director of The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park.
‘A lot of big acts come in for these corporate events, which are a great source of income for us,” Slusher continued.
“The Padres are doing a terrific job and are bringing us some really great events through the partnership we have with them. They do about 35 private events a year at The Shell. So, if anyone asks: ‘Why don’t you book another 35 concerts and not do corporate events?’ — the reality is I don’t think there are 35 other acts to book.”
Blues guitar and vocal legend Buddy Guy will perform at The Shell on Sept. 11, just six weeks after he will turn 90. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
State-of-the-art venue
The 2021 opening of The Shell proved doubly fortuitous for the San Diego Symphony. The orchestra was essentially homeless between early 2020 and the fall of 2024 when its downtown Jacobs Music Center reopened after a five-year, $163 million, top-to-bottom rebuilding.
The Shell provided the orchestra with a state-of-the-art venue where it could rehearse and perform for a good number of its spring, summer and fall performances — and even for some early winter holiday concerts. The venue also provided San Diego with a new musical and visual landmark that, barely a month after it opened, was featured as part of Apple’s global iPhone 13 promotional rollout.
Held on Aug. 6, 2020, The Shell’s first concert featured the Rafael Payare-led San Diego Symphony and several international guest soloists. It drew televised coverage on the PBS Evening News and was also covered by The New York Times and publications in San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal, whose Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal is also led by Payare.
Along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony is now one of the only major classical music organizations in the country that owns and operates both an indoor and outdoor concert venue. That advantage is furthered by the temperate weather in San Diego, which is home to at least five major outdoor venues that typically hold concerts for up to eight months each year.
“Our season at The Shell is really never over because we are able to do concerts in March, April, May and in the fall that aren’t part of our summer subscription series,” Slusher said.
“A lot of our symphony colleagues’ venues end their outdoor concert seasons by October. But The Shell keeps going and our holiday concerts at The Shell in December are very well-attended.”
Hall agreed, adding: “Last year was the first year since 2019 that we brought our holiday concerts back indoors to the Jacobs Music Center. And what we realized is that a lot of people grew to love those holiday events at The Shell. So, we’re looking at doing them indoors and outdoors, because people have a desire to go to holiday concerts at The Shell in December, even if it is a cooler time.”
This year will see the venue present seven spring and summerperformances at which the symphony will provide a live orchestral soundtrack to popular films, including “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and “Star Wars: A New Hope.”
There will also be tributes to The Beatles, Bee Gees and Eagles, along with two themed concerts whose titles — “Let The Sunshine In: The Music of ’69” and “The Sixties Show” — clearly indicate the nostalgia-fueled target audience they are designed to attract. The fact that 1969 is the year that the fabled Woodstock festival took place is no coincidence.
“We can’t call it ‘Woodstock’,” Slusher said. “But the program will be a celebration and recognition of what happened at Woodstock. At the same time, 1969 was the same year the (third edition of the) Harlem Culture Festival took place and we’re going to try to integrate both those festivals into the program. It’s a concert to recognize the music of that time and social change, but in a positive manner.”
James Taylor made his debut at The Shell with two sold-out shows last year. He returns for an encore concert on April 28. (Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)
A quick starter
The rule of thumb in the concert industry is that it usually takes at least three years for a new venue, festival or concert season to just break even, let alone become successful. The Shell did well right out of the gate, due to both a variety of factors beyond its stunning setting on San Diego Bay with the downtown skyline to the right, Coronado and North Island on the left, and — for performers looking out at the audience from the stage — the lights of Tijuana and Baja to the south.
Or as James Taylor put it at the first of his two sold-out concerts at The Shell last May as he introduced his 1975 hit, “Mexico”: “This may be the closest I’ve ever played this song to Mexico.”
James Taylor’s San Diego concert a triumph of skill, tenacity, charm and wit
The Shell boasts other attributes beyond its eye-catching setting and a seashell-shaped stage that suggests a more intimate iteration of the famed Hollywood Bowl nestled alongside San Diego Bay.
The venue’s 3,865-square-foot Una Davis Family Stage covers 3,865 square feet. It is 54 feet deep, 57 feet high and 92 feet wide at the front of the stage.
It contains two top-line sound systems — the Meyer Constellation Acoustic System, which provides the sound for the performers on stage, and a K2 L’Acoustics system, which provides the sound that the audience hears in the venue. The Constellation is the first of its kind to be built for an outdoor venue, rather than an indoor one, and provides musicians a level of sonic quality usually only found in first-rate concert halls.
Including the food court by the front entrance and the backstage dressing rooms, offices and storage spaces, The Shell occupies a third of downtown’s 10.8-acre Embarcadero Marina Park.
The entire venue, including its permanent restrooms, is open 85 percent of the year as a public park. The symphony’s summertime rehearsals are open free of charge to the public, as are some of the pre-concert soundchecks by bands and solo artists who perform orchestra-free concerts.
The San Diego Symphony opened the $85 million Rady Shell at Jacobs Park on Aug. 6, 2021. The venue can accommodate up to 10,000 people, but most concerts have a 4,500 seating capacity. (Courtesy San Diego Symphony)
Flexible configurations
Depending on the seating configuration, the capacity for each concert at The Shell can increase or decrease.
For seated performances with cabaret table seating at the front of the venue, the capacity is usually around 4,500. For standing-room-only concerts, the capacity can be between 8,500 and 10,000.
The symphony’s agreement with the San Diego Port Commission and California Coastal Commission to operate The Shell stipulates that no more six events a year can be held at that maximum 10,000 capacity. The agreement also includes a 55-day, or 110 half-day, a year limit — from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. — on the number of ticketed events that can be held at the venue.
“Something we continue to look at is the fact there is no fixed seating at The Shell, so we can scale our events from 4,500 to 10,000 and everything in between,” said symphony marketing and communications vice president Hall. “This allows us to figure out which configuration works best for different artists and different genres.”
If that means removing all the tables to add more rows of seating, or creating room for dancing and a mosh pit at the front of The Shell’s stage — as was the case for last year’s concert by the neo-psychedelic Australian band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — no problem.
“That was a first for us with King Gizzard, especially considering that it was an orchestral concert!” Slusher said. “The band was very clear about the mosh pit being part of the experience. We said ‘Great,’ and we were prepared for it.”
King Gizzard has now performed in two concert seasons at The Shell. Other artists — including The Beach Boys, Gipsy Kings and Smokey Robinson — have also performed multiple times there — although not nearly as often as they have at the 1,450-seat Humphreys Concert by the Bay on Shelter Island. Humphreys this year is celebrating its 45th anniversary and will exclusively announce its 2026 season in next week’s San Diego Union-Tribune.
It is not uncommon for acts to alternate the venues they appear in here.
Bonnie Raitt performed at The Shell in 2023, then did two nights at Humphreys in 2024. Mt. Joy, which played at Humphreys in 2021, was part of the 2025 Shell season and will do an encore performance there on Aug. 18. The veteran English pop-reggae band UB40, which has performed several times at Humphreys, this year will appear at SDSU’s Aztec Bowl at Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheatre.
The lines are further blurred by the fact that AEG/Goldenvoice Senior Vice President of Talent John Wojas — who has exclusively booked the Humphreys series since 2007 — also books the AEG-produced concerts at The Shell.
“Humphreys is a fantastic venue, but there are differences in size between it and The Shell,” Slusher said.
“In San Diego, the number of live events taking place on the same night at different venues is competitive. But that’s not specific to music. The Padres have games at Petco Park on days when we have concerts at The Shell, and both are very well-attended. So, it’s not an ‘either/or’ situation.
“When we opened in 2021, The Shell was a new venue that was not yet on the radar of a lot of (talent) agents. Now, we are. It’s all about growth and we know so much more now about the operation of The Shell than we did in 2021.”
Initially, the venue featured three summer jazz concerts per season, most of them were led by top San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos. He is the jazz curator for the symphony’s annual indoor Jazz at the Jacobs concerts series, which was launched 11 years ago and typically sells out each of its three annual concerts.
But jazz shows at The Shell have in recent years been trimmed back to just one. For this summer’s season, it will be “Manteca! A Dizzy Gillespie & Chano Pozo Celebration,” featuring Castellanos & The KSDS Jazz Orchestra, on Sept. 5.
“Gilbert consistently brings us great guest artists for his jazz concerts and his shows sell out for us at Jacobs Music Center,” Slusher said.
“But I think it’s unsustainable to do two or three jazz shows a year at The Shell, just because of the costs of doing concerts there. At the Jacobs Music Center, which seats around 1,750, Gilbert sells out and his shows are wonderful. It doesn’t work at The Shell, which has 4,500 seats and more overhead (expenses).
“We are really lucky to have Gilbert. But we have to be smart about what we do, financially. There are so many things I’d present, if money and ticket sales didn’t have to be taken into consideration. And there are so many great artists that should play The Shell. But we have to look at the numbers and make tough decisions.”
Annie Clark, who performs using the stage name St. Vincent, will perform an orchestral concert with the San Diego Symphony this summer at The Shell. (Axel Koester)
‘Three buckets’
Hall uses a tri-pronged analogy to illustrate how The Shell has sustained itself and flourished.
“It takes the form of three buckets — the concerts that the San Diego Symphony does, the concerts that outside promoters like AEG and Golden Voice do at The Shell, and the private events that the Padres book,” he said. “The symphony envisioned all three aspects back when it was thinking about building The Shell and what might be the best core vision for the venue to succeed.”
Several new concert venues have opened in San Diego County since The Shell launched in 2021. They include The Epstein Family Amphitheatre at UC San Diego, FrontWave Arena in Oceanside and The Sound in Del Mar.
While each generally has a different musical focus, there is some overlap. And the more venues there are in one market that compete to book some of the same acts can yield mixed results. Music fans have more concert options, but sometimes those options are in the same week or even on the same day.
“There are some nights where I might be at another venue because I want to see that show,” Slusher said.
“The reality is we have a lot of shows in San Diego. There is so much and you have to ask yourself, as a promoter: ‘When is there too much? When does having too many concerts on the same night lead to (a venue) not doing as well?’ That is the reality of the business here and it is similar in other cities.”
Hall regards it as a simple matter of math.
“How much is too much? For us it’s no more than 110 half days a year at The Shell,” he said. “That’s where our focus is, because we cannot go above 110. To my knowledge, that’s not something that is likely to change.”
Hall and Slusher are working to maximize The Shell’s future appeal and earning potential. They are aiming high.
“One of the things I think about in terms of what the future looks like is wanting The Shell to eventually become one of the outdoor legacy venues in the United States,” Hall said.
“The best example of that is the Hollywood Bowl and everything it has been for Los Angeles and Southern California, with the events it has hosted and the impact it has over years and years.
“That is something we look at a lot. You can’t do that in five years, but we are constantly striving to make sure we serve the community in best way we can. We have monthly yoga events and have held a naturalization ceremony at The Shell. We want to be a valuable resource and that’s how you become a legacy venue.”
2026 at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park Pre-season concerts
All concerts are at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise indicated.
March 20: Foreigner: “The Hits Orchestral,” with the San Diego Symphony, featuring conductor Stuart Chafetz ($75-$657)
April 10: Black Coffee, 3 p.m. ($136-$282)
The Mexicali pop-rock band Reik will make its Shell headlining debut on April 11 as part of the venue’s pre-summer season. (Courtesy San Diego Symphony)
April 11: Reik ($110-$280)
April 14: Ethel Cain, 7 p.m. ($87-$110)
April 28: An Evening with James Taylor & His All-Star Band ($109-$1069)
May 1 & 3: “Star Wars: A New Hope” In Concert, featuring conductor Scott Terrell and the San Diego Symphony ($51-$152)
May 2: Bob Moses & Cannons, 6:30 p.m. ($70-$141)
May 10: The Avett Brothers & Mike Patton ($78-$167)
May 19: Alex G, 7 p.m. ($64.30-$86.40)
May 20: Yungblud, 7 p.m. ($79-$289)
Paul Simon will perform at The Shell for the first time in his career this spring. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
June 9: Paul Simon “A Quiet Celebration,” 7 p.m. ($90-$730)
June 10: Louis Tomlinson, 7 p.m. ($101.50)
June 12: Classic Albums Live performs The Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits” ($39-$124)
2026 Conrad Prebys Summer Season at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
All concerts are at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise indicated.
June 26: Opening Night with the San Diego Symphony, featuring music and artistic director Rafael Payare and violinist Stefan Jackiw ($39-$268)
June 27: The Beach Boys with the San Diego Symphony, featuring conductor Sean O’Loughlin ($39-$268)
June 28: Kool & The Gang, with The Sugarhill Gang, ($39-$268)
July 3: “Blockbuster Broadway,” featuring conductor Evan Roider, vocalists Jessica Hendy, Alex Getlin, Scott Coulter and John Boswell, and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
July 4: “America The Beautiful: 250,” featuring conductor Byron Stripling, guest artists Mamie Parris, Leo Manzari, Bobby Floyd, Rick Shaw and Jim Rupp, and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
July 10: “Let The Sunshine In: The Music of ’69,” featuring conductor Ted Sperling, vocalists Morgan James, Bryonha Marie and Noah Rickets, and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
Wynonna Judd will perform on a double-bill with Melissa Etheridge on July 11 at The Shell. (Courtesy San Diego Symphony)
July 11: Melissa Etheridge and Wynonna Judd 7 p.m. ($39-$268)
July 12: Beethoven by the Bay, featuring the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and pianist Parker Van Ostrand. ($39-$268)
July 17: “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, Celebrating 25 Years of Final Fantasy, X!”, featuring conductor Arnie Roth, vocalist Rikki, the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Master Chorale ($39-$268)
July 18: “How To Train Your Dragon 2” In Concert, featuring conductor Jason Seber and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra ($39-$268)
July 31: The Music of John Williams, featuring conductor David Newman and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
Aug. 1: St. Vincent with the San Diego Symphony, featuring conductor Jules Buckley ($39-$268)
Aug. 2: Sarah McLachlan, with Allison Russell 7 p.m. ($79-$299)
Aug. 7: “Disney ’80s-’90s Celebration in Concert,” featuring conductor Jason Seber and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
Aug. 8: “Stayin’ Alive: The Bee Gees Beyond,” with Rajaton and the San Diego Symphony, featuring conductor Steven Reineke ($39-$268)
Aug. 9: Gipsy Kings, featuring Nicolas Reyes, with Reyes Heritage ($39-$268)
Aug. 14: “The Gershwins in Hollywood,” featuring conductor Rob Fisher, vocalist Michael Feinstein and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi will lead their band in concert at The Shell this summer. (Photo credit Stuart Levine / Courtesy of Tedeschi Trucks Band / Grandstand Media)
Aug. 16: Tedeschi Trucks Band, with Lukas Nelson 6 p.m. ($39-$268)
Aug. 18: Mt. Joy: Celebrating 10 years, 7 p.m. ($39-$268)
Aug. 21 & 22: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” In Concert, featuring conductor Justin Freer and the San Diego Symphony, 7 p.m. ($39-$268)
Aug 23: Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra with the San Diego Symphony, featuring conductor Stuart Chafetz ($39-$268)
Aug. 28: “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” In Concert, featuring conductor Larry Loh and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
Aug. 29: Classic Albums Live performs “The Beatles (The White Album)” ($39-$268)
Aug. 30: Tchaikovsky Spectacular, featuring conductor Enluis Montes Olivar, pianist Joyce Yang, and the San Diego Symphony ($39-$268)
Sept. 5: “Manteca! A Dizzy Gillespie & Chano Pozo Celebration,” featuring Gilbert Castellanos & The KSDS Jazz Orchestra ($39-$268)
Sept. 11: Buddy Guy “90” ($39-$268)
Sept. 13: Chris Tomlin: Worship Under the Stars, 7 p.m.
Sept. 16: “Weird Al” Yankovic, 7 p.m. ($71-$225)
Sept. 18: “The Sixties Show,” featuring Craig O’Keefe, Tom Licameli, Jim Boggia, Kevin Bents, Scott Devours and Peter Chiusano, 7 p.m. ($39-$268)
Sept. 26: Mariachi USA, 6 p.m. ($39-$268)
Oct. 14: Bonnie Raitt, 7 p.m. ($71-$210)
Ticket information
Series ticket packages go on sale today, March 1, at 10 a.m. online at sandiegosymphony.org, by phone at (619) 235-0804, and at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park box office, 222 Marina Park Way, downtown. The Summer 2026 individual package prices below include the $30 handling fee per package. Single ticket sales will be announced at a later date.
Friday A (8 concerts): $222 to $832
Friday B (4 concerts): $131 to $457
Friday C (4 concerts): $131 to $457
Saturday A (8 concerts): $260 to $1,028
Saturday B (4 Concerts): $166 to $650
Saturday C (4 concerts): $138-$470
Sunday A (5 concerts): $166.50-$591.50