Chene Park City Beat

City Beat (June 27, 2007) By Scott Bolohan Jun 26, 2007, 09:23

Open Heir
Chene Park

As Detroit’s only dedicated outdoor concert venue, Chene Park offers views unlike any other in the city. But as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, the landmark remains among the most overlooked venues in the metro area. Located on the banks of the Detroit River, the underrated concert jewel in Detroit’s near east side is still going strong.

The city-owned Chene Park opened up in 1982. The 6,000-seat amphitheater regularly features around 40 shows a season and has become known for its Wednesday Night Jazz series and Friday Night Classic Soul series. More recently, it added the Hip Hop Legends series, which brought the likes of the Wu-Tang Clan and Ice Cube to the stage last year.

In 2004, the contract to manage and operate Chene Park was awarded to The Right Productions, Inc., a Detroit family-owned company founded in 1996 and run by President Shahida Mausi, the Director of the City of Detroit Council of the Arts under Coleman Young. Now celebrating 25 years of music, Mausi can’t believe the time that’s passed. “The fact that it’s been 25 years astonishes me, because I was here when it started. It was my office that did the first programming here and we started the Jazz series 25 years ago,” Masui said. “The first capacity show that was here was Carmen McCray. At that time, there were no fixed seats. It had threatened rain all day, we didn’t know whether to unload that grand piano or just go home. But the people came, and they came, and they came. They sat on this damp hill that wasn’t covered. That night, 6,000 people came to Chene Park and we knew we were on to something.”

Since taking over the management of Chene Park, Mausi has emphasized bringing the venue up to a more modern and convenient place to see a show while maintaining the established traditions of affordable and positive entertainment. “We really wanted to upgrade the services here, simple things like taking credit cards at the box office. We added valet parking, a wait staff to VIP seating, upgraded the food and added more concessions,” Mausi said. “The sound system here is now extraordinary; it used to be an issue. It’s a first-class sound system that gives you the warmth and clarity for a great show. It’s such a beautiful view, we wanted to make it a more beautiful experience.”

Despite being around for a quarter of a century, Chene Park remains an oft-overlooked part of the music scene in Michigan. “Part of it is so many people who do not live or work in Detroit don’t know anything about Chene Park. It’s just one mile east of General Motors headquarters, in one of the safest downtowns in the country, and people don’t know about it,” Mausi said. “It speaks to some of those major issues that we broadly, as a metropolitan area, need to address.”

Mausi said that Chene Park is always trying to expand to a wider audience, and hopes to attract more of a variety of musical acts and fans in the future. “We are still hoping to do rock shows, country shows, classical music and straight up pop. It is such a great venue and not to bring the other forms of great music here is something we want to see changed.” | RDW