Scissortail Park Aims To Attract Big Acts To City

What better place to rock out to some good music than the newest venue in Oklahoma City, Scissortail Park.

"You know, I think the park is so amazing and so open; I think anything is possible here," said Graham Colton, who made his name as a pop singer in the 2000s and now is a partner with Jones Assembly, a restaurant and live-music venue in downtown Oklahoma City.

Colton is also part of the Social Order, a group responsible for Scissortail Park's new restaurant, Spark.

"We say that the Jones is built on food, spirits and music," he said.

Colton helps bring artists to the Jones stage, and now he'll do the same with Scissortail Park.

"The Social Order is doing what we can to help. We are kind of the unofficial producer, especially for the Friday night concert," he said.

What an opening-night concert that is! Kings of Leon will be playing.

But it's not just limited to the grand opening.

"We've got such a beautiful place that allows us to kind of dream big," Colton said.

Scissortail Park CEO Maureen Heffernan said they will work with Colton as a consultant when they book music groups. Heffernan also says Scissortail staff will work with community groups and other musical experts and enthusiasts when picking performers.

"With future things, kind of the plan in the long run is to have a partnership to get artists in there and utilize the space as much as possible," Hefferman said.

Chase Kerby, the director of Art Moves -- an OKC Art Council initiative to provide free arts events in downtown OKC -- says the bandshell should give mainstream talent an outdoor venue in the heart of the city.

"For a spot that can really have, house that many people in an audience, I would say really a more mainstream audience or artists that have a certain level of notoriety," Kerby said.

"We don't know yet what any kind of music programming looks like, and that's the exciting part," he added.

Everyone involved is dreaming big, and the park's CEO said they are open to other entertainment, too, such as dance, theatre, lecture and movies.