Shoreline Amphitheatre is the 22,500-capacity outdoor concert venue in Mountain View, California, that has anchored Bay Area live music since 1986. Built on reclaimed parkland just steps from Google’s headquarters, it’s instantly recognizable to anyone who has stood on its lawn watching the sun set over the Santa Cruz Mountains — and its aerial layout, shaped like the Grateful Dead’s famous skull logo, makes it one of the most distinctive venues in the country.
It’s also a venue that generates a surprisingly common question: has Shoreline Amphitheatre ever gone by a different name, or is it called something else today? The short answer is that the venue itself has only ever had one name — a rarity in an industry where amphitheatres routinely trade names between banks, insurers, and streaming services. But the story doesn’t stop there: the land beneath it has a much stranger past, and even the band whose logo shaped the venue didn’t start out under the name most fans know.
Quick Answer
Shoreline Amphitheatre has carried that exact name — with no corporate sponsor rebrand — since it opened on June 29, 1986. It holds 22,500 people (about 6,500 reserved seats plus roughly 16,000 lawn spots), is owned by the City of Mountain View, and is operated today by Live Nation. The land it sits on, however, was previously a landfill, and before that a pig farm and auto-wrecking yard — which is where most of the name confusion actually comes from.
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What Did Shoreline Amphitheatre Used to Be Called?
Unlike many amphitheatres that have cycled through a string of corporate sponsor names — think of venues that have been a bank, an insurer, and a streaming service all in one decade — Shoreline Amphitheatre has kept the same name since its very first concert in 1986. The City of Mountain View, which owns the land, has never sold full naming rights, so “Shoreline Amphitheatre” (sometimes written in full as “Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View”) is the only name the venue has ever carried.
The confusion usually traces back to the land itself, not the venue. The site was used as a pig farm and auto-wrecking yards before the City of Mountain View acquired it and spent roughly 15 years filling it with municipal garbage to reshape the marshland and control flooding. That reclaimed landfill became the 750-acre Shoreline Park, which officially opened in 1983, and the amphitheatre followed three years later. Longtime Grateful Dead fans even gave the venue an affectionate nickname of its own, calling it “the Dump” in reference to that landfill history — a phrase that still turns up on decades of tour t-shirts and stickers.
Is Shoreline Amphitheatre Called Something Else Today?
No. As of 2026, Shoreline Amphitheatre is still marketed and ticketed under its original name — there’s no naming-rights sponsor attached to the venue as a whole, which is unusual for a venue this size. Live Nation, which operates the amphitheatre under an agreement with the City of Mountain View, uses “Shoreline Amphitheatre” on tickets, marquee listings, and its own official Shoreline Amphitheatre site.
The one wrinkle: the venue does sell sponsorships for individual premium spaces, such as the Citi-branded VIP terrace lounge, the way most arenas and amphitheatres do. That’s a branded hospitality upgrade, not a rename of the venue itself — if you’ve seen it referenced elsewhere under a different name, it’s most likely that kind of premium-space branding, an older nickname like “the Dump,” a GPS listing for the surrounding Shoreline Park, or confusion with one of the many other “Amphitheatre” venues Live Nation operates around the country.
What About the Band Behind Its Design — Has It Only Ever Had One Name?
Given how closely Shoreline is tied to the Grateful Dead — the venue’s layout is a tribute to the band’s logo, and the Dead played it 39 times — it’s a fair follow-up question: has the Grateful Dead itself only ever had one name? Unlike the venue, the answer is no. The band formed in early 1965 under the name the Warlocks, debuting under that name at a pizza parlor in Menlo Park that May. By December 1965, after learning another band was already using “the Warlocks,” the group renamed itself the Grateful Dead — a phrase Jerry Garcia reportedly found in a dictionary.
That name change happened two decades before Shoreline Amphitheatre ever opened, so every Grateful Dead show at the venue, from their delayed 1987 debut through their final performance there in 1995, was played under the name fans know today.
A Venue Born from Landfill and Legend
Shoreline Amphitheatre was built directly on top of that remediated landfill, a fact that shaped its engineering as much as its mythology. Methane pockets left over from the buried waste caused fires during the venue’s opening season — including a widely retold incident during a 1986 Santana show when gas seeping from the ground ignited — forcing crews to repair the landfill’s clay cap and install specialized gas-extraction and monitoring systems before the 1987 season.
The first performance took place on June 29, 1986, with comedian Roseanne Barr opening for Julio Iglesias — a curious debut for what would become one of rock’s most storied stages. The Grateful Dead had originally been slated to christen the amphitheatre that same summer, but Jerry Garcia’s diabetic coma forced a cancellation. The band finally made their Shoreline debut on October 2, 1987, and went on to play the venue 39 times through their final performance there in June 1995.
Why It’s Shaped Like the Grateful Dead’s Skull Logo
Shoreline’s most famous design quirk is intentional. Music promoter Bill Graham, who partnered with the City of Mountain View to build the amphitheatre in 1985–86, had the venue’s layout designed to echo the outline of the Grateful Dead’s “Steal Your Face” skull logo when viewed from directly overhead — a tribute to the band whose fans would go on to fill the lawn dozens of times over the following decade. It’s not something you can make out from the seats or even the parking lot; the shape only resolves from the air, which is part of why it took years for the story to become widely known beyond aerial photographers and aviation buffs flying out of nearby Moffett Field.
Seating and Capacity: Reserved vs. Lawn
Shoreline’s 22,500-person capacity splits into two very different experiences. Roughly 6,500 fixed, numbered seats fill the covered and semi-covered reserved sections closest to the stage, arranged in three tiers (the 100s, 200s, and 300s) that curve around the amphitheatre’s bowl. Behind that sits the lawn — about 16,000 general-admission spots on open grass where fans bring blankets and chairs and pick their own spot for the show.
For multi-stage festivals, the venue can expand to around 30,000 by adding a stage and standing room in the adjacent parking areas. Reserved seats are generally the better choice for sightlines and sound, while the lawn is the more social, budget-friendly option — and the one most associated with Shoreline’s identity as a quintessential Bay Area summer-night venue.
Planning Your Visit
Shoreline Amphitheatre runs a seasonal schedule tied to its touring calendar, typically busiest from spring through fall, and pricing follows the standard concert-venue pattern: reserved seats cost more than lawn tickets, and prices vary show to show based on the artist and demand. Tickets are sold through the venue’s authorized partners rather than at a single fixed box-office rate, so the most reliable way to check current dates, prices, and showtimes is the official Shoreline Amphitheatre site, which links out to the authorized ticketing partner for each event.
Parking is available in the venue’s surrounding lots, with accessible spaces near the front gates; alcohol, barbecues, and tailgating in the lots are not permitted and are enforced by venue staff and Mountain View police. Like most Live Nation amphitheatres, Shoreline enforces a clear-bag policy — small clutch bags are allowed alongside clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC totes, while backpacks, coolers, and large bags are turned away at the gate. Because specific rules can shift show to show, it’s worth confirming details for your date directly on the official site or by calling the venue’s box office before you go.
See the stage from the lawn seats — small enough for most venue bag rules.
Phone, cards and keys in front of you all night, hands free for the encore.
Packs smaller than a water bottle — a real seat for lawn shows and festival sets.
Shoreline Amphitheatre name history FAQs
Has Shoreline Amphitheatre ever changed its name?
No. It has been called Shoreline Amphitheatre since its first concert on June 29, 1986, with no corporate sponsor rebrand in its history.
What was Shoreline Amphitheatre before it became a concert venue?
The land was a pig farm and auto-wrecking yards before the City of Mountain View turned it into a municipal landfill, which was later capped and reclaimed into Shoreline Park.
Why do people call Shoreline Amphitheatre “the Dump”?
It’s a nickname Grateful Dead fans gave the venue because it was built on a former landfill — not an official or current name, but one that still appears on old tour merchandise.
Why is Shoreline Amphitheatre shaped like a skull?
Promoter Bill Graham had the venue’s layout designed to resemble the Grateful Dead’s ‘Steal Your Face’ skull logo when seen from the air, as a tribute to the band.
Who owns and operates Shoreline Amphitheatre today?
The City of Mountain View owns the land, and Live Nation operates the venue under an agreement with the city.
How many people does Shoreline Amphitheatre hold?
It holds 22,500 people — about 6,500 reserved seats and 16,000 lawn spots — expanding to around 30,000 for multi-stage festivals.
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