With the pandemic subsiding, live entertainment is finally returning. YouTube, one of the biggest names you’d associate with digital entertainment, is now preparing to embrace this return to normalcy in a whole new way. In a first-of-its-kind development, the company is lending its name to a live event venue in Inglewood, California. An upcoming 6000-seat performance venue at Hollywood Park will be called YouTube Theater, the companies have announced.
YouTube Theater is a 227,000 square foot, three-story indoor venue with a 6,100 square-foot stage. It will host a variety of events including concerts, award shows, esports competitions, community gatherings, conferences, and of course, YouTube creator events. The company says the theater will be “a new creative oasis for Angelenos.”
“YouTube creators and artists are the heart of YouTube and YouTube Theater adds to the portfolio of opportunities to drive their creativity, build their businesses, grow their communities and so much more, said Angela Courtin, Vice President of Brand Marketing, YouTube.
The theater will have a large-scale digital YouTube play button icon outside the building. It can transform into an immersive video screen. Guests will be able to interact by mirroring themselves on the screen. They can view highlights of YouTube’s creator and artist content. A dynamic digital wall on the interior will also showcase YouTube creators and artists in a gallery-like setting.
According to YouTube, the new theater is also an architectural wonder. The venue blends seamlessly under the same roof canopy as the 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium and American Airlines Plaza. It will feature “six luxury boxes, a 1,200 square-foot premium back-of-house hospitality space with adjacent dressing rooms, and a 3,500 square-foot private club with 140 premium seats”. The main stage will have the farthest seat only 164 feet away so everyone in the house is close to the action.
YouTube Theater will open for guests in September 2021
Hollywood Park is a “near 300-acre sports and entertainment destination” in Inglewood, California. Along with several entertainment venues, the site includes a 300-room hotel and 3,000 apartments with a massive retail area.
YouTube Theater will be part of the new mixed-use development at Hollywood Park. As said before, this will be the first time where YouTube’s name will feature in a live event venue. Neither party disclosed the financial terms of this multi-year naming-rights agreement though.
Construction of the YouTube Theater will complete in summer 2021. The venue will host its first live event on September 4th, a Caifanes show. Six more events are currently scheduled for September 2021, including Pitbull’s I Feel Good tour featuring Iggy Azalea.
Hollywood Park, in partnership with Live Nation, has also already confirmed several other shows at the theater for subsequent months. Those include TLC with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony in October, Christian Nodal with special guest Gera MX in December, and Louis Tomlinson in March 2022. You can buy tickets for all upcoming YouTube Theater events here.