Onondaga County amphitheater marks 10 years with free community celebration

A free six-hour celebration at the Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview put Onondaga County’s waterfront bet under a spotlight Sunday, with local musicians filling the 17,500-seat venue as county leaders marked 10 years since the amphitheater first opened.

The Community Celebration ran from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and was added as the 20th event on the venue’s 2026 lineup, giving residents a no-cost way to mark a milestone that started in September 2015, when Miranda Lambert opened the amphitheater with her Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars tour.

Owned by Onondaga County, promoted by Live Nation and managed by ASM Global, the amphitheater sits on the western shore of Onondaga Lake in Geddes, part of the county’s long-running effort to turn a polluted industrial shoreline into a destination. County leaders have said the project changed summer in Central New York, and an editorial tied to the anniversary put the venue’s local economic impact at about $200 million.

That economic case has helped define the amphitheater almost as much as the music. An Empower Federal Credit Union press release said the venue hosts more than 200,000 visitors annually, a crowd large enough to send business into downtown Syracuse, Geddes and the surrounding lakefront corridor on show nights. Restaurants, bars, parking operators and hotels have all benefited from the kind of seasonal traffic that a 17,500-seat outdoor stage can deliver.

The venue’s name has also changed with its business model. St. Joseph’s Health held the naming rights in a five-year, $750,000 deal approved by the Onondaga County Legislature in 2018. Empower Federal Credit Union took over in October 2023 in a seven-year deal worth $4 million, signaling that the amphitheater remains a valuable regional brand as well as a performance space.

Sunday’s anniversary celebration arrived as more than a ribbon-cutting moment. It offered a chance to measure what the county actually bought when it built the amphitheater: a summer attraction that draws national acts, a downtown-adjacent economic engine and a symbol of lakefront reinvention. For Onondaga County residents, the answer still depends on whether the venue is judged by the concerts it stages or by the permanent place it has claimed in the county’s identity.