- April 24, 2025
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Garry Lubi looked over the renovations to the Allen Smolen Amphitheater at the Daytona State College Flagler/Palm Coast Campus and was excited about how the improved facility will enhance the 2025 Palm Coast Songwriters Festival.
“The improvements are really awesome,” he said.
The first event at the renovated amphitheater will be the festival’s kickoff show on April 30. The festival continues through May 4 with eight shows in all, five at the amphitheater. The kickoff is a separate ticketed charity show with three acts: songwriters Karen Staley and Ashley Estevez at 5 p.m., Wynn Varble and Matt Alderman at 6:05 p.m. and the featured act, recording artist and songwriter Michael Ray with Brock Berryhill and Josh Phillips, from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
“The kickoff show is going to be incredible,” said Lubi, the festival’s founder.
A portion of the proceeds from the kickoff will benefit the Flagler County Education Foundation’s scholarship program for students attending DSC.
Lubi said each year the festival has gotten better and better with nine country music songwriters coming to town in the festival’s first year in 2018 to 49 songwriters this year who have collectively produced over 175 No. 1 hits.
The amphitheater provides an intimate setting in which the songwriters not only perform but also tell stories about how the songs came to be.
“Hearing the story behind the song touches you in a different way,” Lubi said. “You connect with it more. And sometimes (the songwriter) performs the song even better than the artist. It gives you a very unique experience.”
Among the improvements to the amphitheater, said Jim Graham, a DSC communications manager, is the roof over the seating area has been expanded to provide additional reserved seating space. The roof over the stage was extended to cover the rear of the stage, creating a sheltered backstage area for performers and staff.
A new service drive allows performers to unload equipment directly behind the stage. The stage has updated audio wiring and audiovisual capabilities. Performance lighting has been upgraded to LEDs and house lighting and controls have been modernized. One hundred portable seats have been added to the concrete seating.
The area outside the amphitheater was expanded to accommodate food trucks and outdoor dining. The internal campus one-way road was expanded to two lanes, which is expected to reduce event traffic on Palm Coast Parkway, Graham said. The total cost of the project, Graham said, was $3,310,026. The venue has seating for about 700. Lawn seating brings capacity to about 1,000, said Lubi, who is also a member of the DSC Board of Trustees.
“The great thing about the amphitheater is there isn’t a bad seat,” Lubi said.
The May 1-4 amphitheater shows are five hours long. Tickets are $55 for reserved seats under cover and $30 for general admission. A limited number of four-day passes, May 1-4, are still available at $175. There is also a free show at the Hammock Grill, 5224 N. Ocean Shore Blvd. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 1.
To buy tickets, see a complete festival schedule and read about the artists, go to https://www.palmcoastsongwritersfestival.com/
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