By Steve Martarano

Sacramento’s newest outdoor music venue wasn’t deterred from making a successful debut with an all-day emo-pop music festival, despite the 110-plus degree temperatures on July 11.

The 2,500 festival-goers danced, partied and crowd-surfed throughout the day’s nine-band lineup, which began at 2 p.m. under a broiling sun and didn’t wrap up until 10 p.m. The Backyard’s debut marked the kickoff of the traveling Sad Summer Festival, headlined by festival founders Mayday Parade and The Maine.

The aptly-named venue, with a capacity of a cozy 3,000, is located at Cal Expo behind the Rock & Brews Restaurant. The amphitheater was created and conceived in collaboration with Cal Expo, promoter Nederlander Concerts, and the national restaurant chain, which was created in 2012 by a group that included KISS members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.

The boutique Los Angeles-based independent event promotion firm, Nederlander Concerts, produces a variety of live entertainment events throughout the U. S., exclusively partnering with several small to mid-sized venues, including the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, Vina Robles Amphitheatre in Paso Robles, and the historic San Jose Civic.

Nederlander Concerts CEO Alex Hodges said he’s been working in Sacramento’s entertainment market for decades, producing several shows at Sutter Health Park in the 2010s — then Raley Field — and even discussing the construction of a permanent amphitheater in its parking lot with former River Cats owner the late Art Savage.

In 2017 Hodges worked with Cal Expo’s entertainment arm to produce several shows — including past Sad Summer festivals — at Heart Health Park, home of Sacramento Republic FC.

“This is a pretty unique situation with the setup and then the restaurant,” Hodges said, pointing out other highlights such as VIP areas, shade providing tree canopies, views of Cal Expo’s race track and grandstand and larger and more comfortable backstage spaces for artists and their tour buses. “We have a lot of assets here that you might not have somewhere else.”

The Backyard has several shows scheduled for the year including Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys on Aug. 9, the Idobi Radio Summer School Tour on Aug. 13 and Yächtley Crëw, Aug. 30.

An employee backstage keeps concert-goers at the Sad Summer Festival cool during The Backyard’s July 11 debut, when temperatures reached 112 degrees. (Photo by Steve Martarano)