Never mind Shoreline. Modesto has a new amphitheater with big plans for big acts

The Hollywood Bowl, Shoreline Amphitheatre and now The Fruit Yard.

After more than 40 years in business, the Modesto restaurant and market way out on Yosemite Avenue is stepping into the outdoor concert business in a big way. Owner Joe Traina and his family are ready to unveil their new amphitheater Friday as it holds its inaugural show featuring six-time Grammy-winning singer Amy Grant.

While considerably smaller than its more famous California outdoor concert sites, the new Fruit Yard Amphitheater hopes to become a big draw for national acts and fans across the region. The 3,500-capacity venue features 1,500 floor seats and room for another 2,000 on its outer grass berm.

The project also features an 80-by-40-foot covered stage accompanied by a 4,000-square-foot backstage facility, both built from the ground up. The six-acre amphitheater complex has parking in front and back, with two entrances off of Yosemite Avenue and one from Geer Road.

The plan is to have up to 12 shows a year at the venue, between its operating season of May to October. Traina hopes to have one or two more shows at the venue before it closes for the year this fall. But no other acts have been confirmed yet.

For its first full season next year, he expects to have eight to 10 shows, ranging from rock to country, Christian performers and even theater shows.

The project has not been without controversy. Residents in the area raised significant concerns about noise, traffic and other disturbances from the concert venue, which sits among orchards and a smattering of homes in a rural area east of Empire. The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors ultimately approved the project in May 2017.

The permit requires amplified-sound concerts from Sunday to Thursday nights to end by 10 p.m., extended to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays if the first two shows comply with county noise ordinances. Traina said representatives will be out Thursday and Friday to test noise levels.

“It is imperative to us that we’re good neighbors,” he said.

The Fruit Yard’s amphitheater has been about three years in the making, though the idea was first sparked almost a decade ago. The restaurant has long hosted the annual Back to Graffiti car show and other concerts on its grounds, including shows with The Beach Boys and Little Richard.

Traina said that while working on another planned development on his property some nine years ago, dirt was moved which created the beginning of the berm that has become the amphitheater’s lawn. After past success with shows dating back to the late 1980s and early ’90s, he said, the concert venue idea emerged organically.

“I was building an amphitheater before I even knew it,” he said.

The backstage building has four well-appointed dressing rooms, some with full showers. There is also a communal lounge and dining area as well as an enclosed load-in zone for tour buses and equipment.

Concert-goers will be able to buy concessions from the Fruit Yard restaurant on site, as well as alcohol and beer. Traina said to expect dinner-and-a-show concert packages in the future. No outside food or drink will be allowed in the venue, but those in lawn seats are encouraged to bring low-back chairs and blankets.

The original development that Traina was working on when the amphitheater idea arose includes an overnight RV park, mini-storage facility and retail space. He hopes to begin work on that project again in about a year.

The Fruit Yard Amphitheater is one of only a handful of larger-scale outdoor concert venues in the region. Modesto has the 1,200-capacity Mancini Bowl in Graceada Park, Turlock has the 10,000-capacity amphitheater at California State University, Stanislaus, and Murphys has the 7,000-capacity Ironstone Amphitheatre at Ironstone Vineyards. By comparison, the Gallo Center for the Arts, Modesto’s premiere indoor performance center, has a total capacity of about 1,700 between its two theaters.

Traina, whose family also owns and operates the dried fruit company Traina Foods, said he already has a dream act he would love to book: The iconic crooner Tom Jones. And, he is in luck. The “What’s New Pussycat?” singer has played the region before, performing at the Bob Hope Theatre in Stockton in 2007 — and it only has 2,042 seats.

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 3:49 PM.