What We Do
For over a decade, Save Starlight has done the groundwork to make the Bowl’s return possible. From advocacy and community building to fundraising, site security, and early activations, we’ve turned a shared hope for this historical landmark into sustained, practical work.
About Save Starlight
Save Starlight is a San Diego nonprofit formed in 2016 to bring the abandoned Starlight Bowl back into public use. We see more than a venue in need of repair. We see a historic space in Balboa Park that could serve a much wider range of people and purposes than it did before. Save Starlight is on a mission to breathe new life into the iconic Starlight Bowl. Our vision is to transform this abandoned amphitheater into a vibrant, year-round venue for diverse performances, community events, and educational programs.
What We Do
Our work brings together preservation, planning, and community participation. We advocate for the Bowl’s future, work with the City of San Diego on a path toward its restoration, and develop a vision for how it could be used and sustained. That vision includes a flexible outdoor venue where artists and organizations can present performances, and where community and educational programs have room to grow.
Restoring the Bowl is only part of the task. We are also building the partnerships, resources, and organizational plans needed to care for it over the long term.
Progress So Far
For nearly a decade, Save Starlight has kept attention on the Bowl and made the case for its reuse. We have developed restoration concepts, invited community input, and built relationships with people and organizations who want to see the space active again. In 2025, the City of San Diego entered into an exclusive negotiation agreement with Save Starlight concerning the Bowl.
Federal funding has also been designated for accessibility improvements at Starlight Bowl. These are meaningful steps, but the larger work remains ahead: securing the arrangements, support, and resources needed to restore and operate the venue.
Where We’re Going
Our next priorities are securing a long-term lease with the City of San Diego and launching a major fundraising campaign to support the Bowl’s restoration. Alongside that work, we’re developing the partnerships and plans needed to operate the venue sustainably. Our aim is to preserve what makes Starlight distinctive while giving it a useful future: a space that welcomes different kinds of events and the people who make them possible.
What We’ve Achieved
We have cared for a venue that could not yet reopen. Our team has maintained a daily presence, addressed ongoing maintenance needs, invested in security, and worked to limit further damage to the property.
We have put volunteers to work on the site. From large community cleanup days to removing graffiti and clearing neglected areas, supporters have contributed their time and labor directly to the Bowl.
We have made tangible improvements. We’ve taken on restoration projects in the upper portion of the property, including restoring the upper bathrooms, while continuing to plan for the much larger rehabilitation the amphitheater needs.
We have raised more than $250,000 for the effort. Through grassroots fundraising, events, and donor support, we’ve sustained years of site care, advocacy, and planning without the resources of a major capital campaign.
We brought notable artists into the cause. Our celebrity guitar campaign secured support from musicians including Tom Petty, who signed a guitar with his band for the effort to save Starlight.
We have kept the Bowl before the City and the public. We’ve advocated for needed repairs, worked directly with City representatives, developed plans for the site, and submitted a formal proposal for its restoration and operation.
We have built a community around its future. Through public events, partnerships, and volunteer efforts, we’ve shown that people are ready to participate in bringing Starlight back.
We have made tangible improvements. We’ve taken on restoration projects in the upper portion of the property, including restoring the upper bathrooms, while continuing to plan for the much larger rehabilitation the amphitheater needs.
We have kept the Bowl before the City and the public. We’ve advocated for needed repairs, worked directly with City representatives, developed plans for the site, and submitted a formal proposal for its restoration and operation.
History MattersWe’ve worked for years to bring Starlight back because we can see what it could become. But we keep showing up for another reason, too: places like this carry pieces of who we are. A stage can hold decades of first performances, family traditions, summer nights, and moments that changed someone’s life. Those stories belong to the people who lived them, and to a city that grew around them.
Preserving Starlight is our way of saying those lives and memories matter. We want future generations to stand here, feel the history beneath their feet, and add stories of their own. That is how a historic place stays alive: people continue to care for it, gather in it, and make it part of their lives.