By Collin Breaux
After more than a year of having to close its doors to public in-person concerts, the show is back on at one of South Orange County’s most popular music venues.
Musical performances returned to The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano this past weekend with concerts by Karly Moreno on Friday, April 9, and by Jason Feddy on Saturday, April 10.
Indoor concerts and other indoor events with limitations were given the green light to resume in California starting this month, as long as an area is not in the purple “widespread” risk tier of the state’s COVID-19 metric monitoring system.
Orange County is currently in the orange “moderate” risk tier, with cases continuing to plummet and vaccinations increasing. Besides some livestreamed shows that were not open to in-person audiences, The Coach House hadn’t had any concerts or events throughout the pandemic.
“I figure it’s time they let us open,” owner Gary Folgner said.
The Coach House is officially operating as a restaurant for the time being, as this past weekend’s performances were called Dinner and Drink Service nights. Under the orange tier, inside dining at restaurants allows only 50% capacity.
The venue will likely continue having local musical acts play until the end of the month, with the latest performances serving as a test run of sorts. Folgner said they are looking at getting national acts back after that and are working to confirm those dates, noting things are “up in the air” at the moment.
National acts, including Buckcherry, The 5th Dimension and The Spinners, were scheduled to play The Coach House in 2020 before the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic. Despite attempts to have some outdoor events, it wasn’t able to work out the logistics for such.
Dinner reservations for the shows are required, and The Coach House will be following health guidelines. Call the box office at 949.496.8930 to book a reservation, and visit thecoachhouse.com for more information.
The Coach House is located at 33157 Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano.
Collin Breaux
Collin Breaux covers San Juan Capistrano and other South Orange County news as the City Editor for The Capistrano Dispatch. Before moving to California, he covered Hurricane Michael, politics and education in Panama City, Florida. He can be reached by email at cbreaux@picketfencemedia.com.
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