Flashback: Great Woods Through The Years

If you’re of a certain age (read: old), the big outdoor amphitheater in Mansfield will always be Great Woods to you and your friends. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit a bit of the venue’s history.

• Great Woods Opens

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  The Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts opened in the summer of 1986. The first performer? Cellist Yo-Yo Ma. We dug up this program schedule from the 1989 season on eBay.

• RIP Great Woods, 1986-1999

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  The venue became the go-to venue for summer music festivals throughout the 1990s, hosting local events like the River Rave and national festivals like Lollapalooza and The Lilith Fair (the 1998 edition is pictured).

• The Tweeter Center Debuts

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  In the summer of 1999, the naming rights to Great Woods were sold and the Tweeter Center was born. Same venue, different name. And it didn't matter: everyone still called it great woods. We grabbed this wicked cool aerial shot of that era from Harriman, the architects who developed the venue.
• Pearl Jam Plays Three

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  Perhaps the most legendary shows of the Tweeter Center-era were on July 2, 3, and 11, 2003. Pearl Jam were due to play on the 2nd and 3rd, then announced they'd return on the 11th so they could finish the feat of playing every song they'd recorded at that time spread over the three-night stand.

• Enter the Comcast Center

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  In the summer of 2008, the name changed yet again and we started going to shows at the Comcast Center...even though we all still called it Great Woods. This pic from that era comes courtesy of Consequence of Sound.

• Radiohead Performs Live

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  Here's a shot from the lawn during a Radiohead set, courtesy of photographer Chris Van Slyke.
• Now? The Xfinity Center

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  One more name change came in 2013, with a rebrand as the Xfinity Center. Wicked Local provides a shot from the beginning of that era.

• Xfinity Center? Or Great Woods?

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  Yes, it's still the Xfinity Center today. But we all still call it Great Woods. What do you call it?