Pine Knob Music Theatre (formerly DTE Energy Music Theatre) is an outdoor amphitheater located in Independence Township, Michigan, approximately 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Detroit. Built by the Nederlander Organization in the early 1970s, it is known as "Pine Knob Music Theatre" due to its proximity to the nearby Pine Knob ski area and golf course.
- Venue
- Pine Knob Music Theatre
- Town
- Independence Township, US
Pine Knob Music Theatre (formerly DTE Energy Music Theatre) is an outdoor amphitheater located in Independence Township, Michigan, approximately 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Detroit. Built by the Nederlander Organization in the early 1970s, it is known as "Pine Knob Music Theatre" due to its proximity to the nearby Pine Knob ski area and golf course. Designed by Neumann/Smith, it was conceived and built by Joe Locricchio. Palace Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Detroit Pistons, purchased the amphitheater in 1990. 313 Presents promotes and produces concerts at the venue, in addition to five other venues across southesast Michigan, including Little Caesars Arena, Fox Theatre, Comerica Park, Meadow Brook Amphitheatre and Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre. Annually, Pine Knob ranks among the top-selling outdoor concert venues in the world and has won dozens of awards in the industry, including Pollstar's Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue (2000), Billboard's Top Amphitheater for attendance (2011) and Pollstar's Top Amphitheater Venue Worldwide for total tickets sold (2011, 2019, 2022). The amphitheater held its grand opening on June 25, 1972, with a matinee performance by teen idol David Cassidy. Andy Williams performed the first evening concert two nights later. At the time of its opening, Pine Knob was the largest amphitheater in the United States with a capacity of 12,500. One of the features of the first years of Pine Knob was the entrance way to the amphitheater. Long cement retaining walls that cut through the hill/lawn were professionally hand-painted with the logos of every artist or group that had performed there. The walls were filled in and replaced by stairs and more lawn seating during the early 1980s, thus increasing the amphitheater's capacity to more than 15,000. The original sound system was novel in its day, a huge theatrical performance system designed for an outdoor theater with a custom console and large-array distributed speaker system. On Novembe