Starlight Bowl Balboa Park in downtown San Diego occupies a 4,300-seat amphitheater on Pan American Plaza, designed by architect Richard S. Requa for the 1935 California-Pacific International Exposition. Originally commissioned as the Ford Bowl, the amphitheater sits on the same Exposition grounds as the San Diego Air & Space Museum, built inside the Ford Building that once hosted coast-to-coast symphony broadcasts. The 501(c)(3) Save Starlight organization secured a special-use permit in 2016 and has since led phased restoration, funded in part by a $500,000 federal HUD appropriation for ADA-compliant upgrades. Programming plans pair emerging local musicians with national touring acts, placing the amphitheater in the same independent-venue booking ecosystem as Casbah in Middletown — but at roughly ten times the seating capacity. Full-scale reopening targets a modular stage configuration and noise-mitigation technology adapted for the venue's flight-path proximity, enabling everything from acoustic residencies to full-production musical-theater runs.