Hoping to lure more patrons, Blossom Music Center is undergoing $14.6 million in improvements that includes a redesigned entrance, a new slate roof, landscaping, parking and picnic areas that will look more like a meadow, blending more naturally into the surrounding Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Blossom, built for the Cleveland Orchestra to give it a place to play in the summer, also stages rock and pop concerts produced by the House of Blues.
"Enough people need to come from neighboring states to find out how amazing (Blossom) is, to create a critical mass of opinion that will drive more and more people to make the trip, said Gary Hanson, associate executive director of the Cleveland Orchestra in the Beacon Journal. "For more and more people to come, there need to be more accommodations. Until more people come, it isn't financially viable to build more accommodations.'"
An average of 5,742 people attended orchestra concerts at Blossom in 2002. Attendances at pop concerts were down a bit from 2001 due to the economy, said
David Carlucci, Blossom's general manager.
