Alaska State Fair to demolish, rebuild concert venue after this year’s shows
The project will start in September and is slated to be finished by next year's fair
What you need to know:
- The Alaska State Fair plans to demolish and rebuild its decades-old amphitheater concert venue after fair gates close this year, with the new facility expected to be ready for next year’s event.
- The estimated $10 million project would increase capacity and add amenities such as bathrooms, more food and drink sales points, and higher side walls.
- Fair officials hope the larger, modernized venue will attract bigger performers and build on the popularity of the concert series, which helped drive record fair attendance last year.
- Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.
PALMER, Alaska — The Alaska State Fair’s main concert venue will get a major makeover at the close of this year’s fair, with construction crews set to bulldoze the decades-old amphitheater and build a new one.
Preliminary plans call for the Borealis Theatre to be rebuilt on its current footprint with a new design that boosts capacity to 6,500 and adds bathrooms, better sound, more points of sale for food and drinks, and higher side walls that will obscure views into the venue from other parts of the fairgrounds.
The current theater’s stage was built in 1978, and the amphitheater bowl was constructed in 1983, making the venue one of the oldest facilities on the fairgrounds. It holds 5,200 people and is the largest outdoor venue in the state, officials said.
The project is estimated to cost $10 million, officials said. It will be finished in time for next year’s fair, state fair CEO Blake Allen said in an interview last month. Which amenities make it into the final plans will depend on construction cost estimates, he said.
Officials said they hope modernizing the facility and expanding capacity can draw bigger acts to the fair.
“The ability to increase capacity and bring in larger acts is something to be excited about, and we’ll just see how that moves forward,” Allen said.
The project follows the construction of a new 8,300-square-foot event space last year, and a major remodel of the Sluicebox bar and concert space in 2024.
The Borealis Theatre concert series is one of the fair’s top attractions, annually drawing thousands of people to the grounds, all of whom must also buy a fair entrance ticket. Last year’s five sold-out performances, paired with good weather, helped push the fair to record gate sales of 388,790, up from 370,485 in 2024.
The venue has hosted some big names over the decades, including multiplatinum artists Kendrick Lamar in 2013, Billy Idol in 2021 and Ludacris in 2024. “Weird Al” Yankovic sold out two shows last year.
Country music singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett is slated to give the final state fair performance in the current venue, with his show scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 7. The fair closes for the year at 8 p.m., immediately following Lovett’s performance.
Other concerts scheduled this season include pop band AJR on Aug. 21, Christian artist Amy Grant on Aug. 24, classic rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive on Aug. 31 and alt-rock band Cake, whose Aug. 27 show is sold out.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com