This summer, the brand-new Coca-Cola Amphitheater opened in Downtown Birmingham.
The venue’s star-studded opening season started on June 22, 2025, with a performance by comedian Matt Rife. The remainder of the venue’s first week boasted performances from the Dave Matthews Band, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and Def Leppard . Since then, the venue has hosted other big-name acts such as Twenty One Pilots, Big Time Rush and T-Pain.
Thanks to the amphitheater’s proximity to Samford’s campus, a number of Samford students have attended performances at the venue. One Samford student, Gabi Young, saw Big Time Rush there during the summer. She compared the new amphitheater to other Birmingham venues such as the BJCC or the old Oak Mountain Amphitheater.
“I definitely think it fits in,” said Young. “I think it’s a great atmosphere, because it is right next to the airport and the planes fly right over, which is cool. I think it’s a good outdoor area. And it’s a lot closer compared to having to drive to Pelham when [Oak Mountain] was the only outdoor one here.”
Chloe Allen, another Samford student, saw Twenty One Pilots at the Amphitheater recently, and talked about the safety of the venue.
“I think that for downtown, it was in a good location,” Allen said. “The whole walk there was well-lit, and so it made you feel safer. And parking wasn’t really an issue, so I feel like some of the concerns people might have are taken care of. I didn’t feel like I was in a dangerous area.”
Another student, Anne Frances Little, did have one complaint.
“We were all the way up [in the nosebleeds]… instead of standing on flat ground, what I was standing on was a little bit of a tilt,” Little said. “When you were on your feet, it was slanted… it made a difference. It made my feet hurt so bad.”
Other than that, however, Little said her concert experience was very easy; getting in and going through lines, even in the brand-new venue, was an efficient process.
“I really liked how they spaced out everything,” Little said. “They spaced out all the merchandise, they spaced out all the bars and stuff, so it wasn’t just one big clump of everyone trying to get the same thing.”
The venue’s opening summer has now concluded. Currently, the venue’s next scheduled show is for April of 2026.
(Representatives from Coca-Cola Amphitheater were unavailable for comment.)
Staff Reporter
