The City of Pasadena will officially unveil “Van Halen Stage” in the new Playhouse Village Park on Saturday, September 10.
Pasadena’s favorite rock and roll sons will be honored on Saturday, September 10, when the City of Pasadena dedicates the new Playhouse Village Park and the Van Halen Stage in the Playhouse District.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set to take place at 9 a.m. followed by a community celebration from 10 a.m. to noon. According to the District 3 Council office, no speakers have yet been named for the ceremony.
Following a city-wide survey in 2021, the City Council voted to name the park’s stage for the band that took its name from Eddie and brother Alex Van Halen, who formed the Pasadena-based band in 1972.
The July 2021 survey asked residents to propose names for the new park, and after two rounds, the responses pointed to two most prominent names: Eddie Van Halen and African-American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula literature awards.
Eddie Van Halen Park received over 3,400 favorable responses in the survey, Octavia E. Butler Park got 526 favorable responses, and Playhouse Village Park and similar variations, including Playhouse Park, got 135, according to a tally reported jointly by the Planning and Community Development Department and the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.
According Pasadena Now article, the Van Halen family requested that the stage area be named for the entire Van Halen band instead of exclusively for Eddie Van Halen.
The “Van Halen Stage” will be located at 701 East Union Street between El Molino Avenue and Oak Knoll Avenue.