@RollSonnenRoll @Based God just read this story about how Sea World in San Diego has suddenly become the hottest Summer concert venue for the old school rap concerts that I be going to
That is a pretty dope looking stage area out there on the high seas, I could definitely vibe to that
Bubba Sparxxx and Petey Pablo are playing there soon LoL
In late June, Atlanta hip-hop duo the Ying Yang Twins commanded an outdoor stage bobbing in a scenic Southern California bay, leading the crowd in a lively performance. Fans screamed the words of “Get Low” and other hits from the pair’s early-aughts heyday, barely sitting down as they bopped along.
Overlooking San Diego’s Mission Bay, the venue had played host to Baby Bash, the Vallejo-born rapper of “Suga Suga” fame, a few days prior. Meanwhile, Trina, Ginuwine, Waka Flocka Flame, Paul Wall and other artists who dominated the airwaves in the 1990s and early 2000s were slated to take over the same scenic stage in the ensuing weeks.
The stacked summer lineup isn’t the product of a city-run seasonal endeavor, though. Nor is it the work of a local upstart with a talented in-house booker. The outdoor Bayside Amphitheater sits, improbably, within the grounds of SeaWorld San Diego, the busy, beleaguered amusement and marine park.
Videos of this year's SeaWorld’s Summer Spectacular Concert Series, exclusively featuring acts from yesteryear, have routinely gone viral this summer and have reportedly spurred an increase in attendance. (You must buy a ticket to the park itself to go to any of these shows; it’s not possible to nab a stand-alone ticket to see, say, Petey Pablo and Bubba Sparxxx at SeaWorld in August.)
The much-circulated lineup has prompted a mixture of bemusement, surprise and trepidation, given SeaWorld’s well-documented past and present controversies. One Reddit thread described the mood concisely: “What in the hell is going on at sea world?”
Concerts aren’t exactly new terrain for SeaWorld, whose parks in other states have held buzzy shows for decades. Celine Dion headlined SeaWorld of Texas in the early 1990s, and country rockers Sheryl Crow, Darius Rucker and Hank Williams, Jr. played the park’s Orlando outpost in the 2010s. But a look at SeaWorld San Diego’s August 2019 summer concert lineup — featuring the 1970s rock band Jefferson Starship, pop crooner Jesse McCartney and alt-rockers Vertical Horizon — is indicative of a changing sensibility. What previously felt like a genre free-for-all has become a thematically curated, nine-week R&B and hip-hop marathon at the Southern California park.
SeaWorld San Diego Park President Tyler Carter and Vice President of Marketing Jackie Plaza tell SFGATE that the idea for this nostalgia-fueled summer series stemmed from a realization a few years ago that “throwback” artists like Bow Wow and Soulja Boy had a tendency to draw crowds. (This year marks the third time playing the park for both artists.) The team decided to roll with it, partnering with the live-entertainment behemoth AEG to help handle artist booking for a bigger show series over the summer. “We think that we’ve triggered this desire for nostalgia,” Plaza says.
The focused lineup has taken off, according to the SeaWorld San Diego team, to the point where they’re considering putting together other potential genre-focused lineups down the line, including an all-rock series. “We are glad that our risk that we took is paying off, because this was totally the goal: to transfer people to a happy place,” Carter tells SFGATE. “Really, what it is, is to disconnect from reality and just have a great time.”