ALICE COOPER PERFORMS AT THE PAVILION AT STAR LAKE | PHOTO BY SEAN COLLIER

Another season has wrapped up at The Pavilion at Star Lake. A burst of old-school metal from Judas Priest and Alice Cooper last Wednesday capped the exurban venue’s concert calendar; if you’re a fan of the heavy stuff (and I am), the show sent the summer of 2025 off with a bang.

If you’re counting the receipts at Live Nation, it probably looks a lot more like a whimper.

It wasn’t expensive to get into this show. A friend reported that he had bought his tickets while attending a previous event at the venue; if you’re there in person, staff will offer discounted, fee-free tickets to upcoming concerts. He reported that he paid just $30 for lawn seats — a reasonable ticket price in an era of (artificially and opportunistically) inflated costs.

I had lawn seats, too. When we arrived, though, we were informed that the lawn wasn’t actually open and were upgraded to pavilion seating. This is the second time that happened to me this year; it seems that, if there are more unsold seats in the pavilion than there are people ticketed for the lawn, the folks at Star Lake move the lawn denizens closer. (This is probably to make lawn cleanup easier as much as it’s a customer service, but it’s a nice feature nonetheless.)

There’s a paradox in this experience. The tickets for this concert were inexpensive and offered us a good view of the show. Accordingly, we had a very good time and the kind of experience that makes me want to return to Star Lake more often.

And that experience was made possible because the show clearly hadn’t sold all that well — otherwise, prices and attendance would’ve both been higher.

It seems like Yogi Berra’s wisdom has finally started to resonate with Pittsburgh concertgoers. “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

I like Star Lake. There are those that would rather stay home than venture to Burgettstown, but the venue is too ingrained in my mind; it’s where I had a long string of formative concert experiences in my teenage years, including my first real grown-up show.

That was the chaotic 1998 edition of X-Fest, featuring Green Day, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Scott Weiland, a flaming drum kit, a long-rumored backstage fistfight and certain acts of onstage public indecency I’m reluctant to enumerate. Obviously, for a 13-year-old, this was life-changing.

While I, too, grumble about the difficulty of getting in and out of Star Lake, I maintain that a handful of treks to Burgettstown are an essential part of the warmer months in Pittsburgh. And if more of them involved a proper, covered seat fairly close to the stage for about $30, I’d grumble a lot less.

The mission, then, is clear: Live Nation needs to turn these elements into a feature, not a bug. Make this the most affordable concert venue in the region, since it will never be the most convenient.

It’s difficult to imagine an entity in the modern concert economy — which seems singularly dedicated to ensuring that only millionaires ever actually attend anything — choosing value as a calling card. But it’s not too long ago that promoters competed to offer deals; look at concert advertisements from two or three decades ago, and they proudly announced ticket deals and bundle prices.

If it had actually been advertised that folks could see Judas Priest and Alice Cooper for $30, in an actual seat, I’d imagine that far more people would’ve made plans for a mid-week trip to Star Lake. (It’s Pittsburgh, after all; classic rock is still on top.) And if that surge in attendance caused the pavilion to fill up … well, that’s the point, isn’t it? Then the venue could’ve started selling lawn tickets for $15 or $20.

I don’t know when promoters forgot this, but the name of the game is getting people in the door — once you have them, you can charge them (at a premium) for beer and T-shirts.

I’ll keep going to Star Lake, and I’ll moderate my grumbling no matter what the circumstances. But there’s an opportunity here to fix the ailing live-event ecosystem not through dynamic pricing but rather through actual customer service.

No fixing the parking, though. My advice: Leave early. You’ll be able to clearly hear the encore as you walk to your car, it’s fine.