Amazon holds concert series outside Spheres as downtown workers return

Amazon.com Inc., (Nasdaq AMZN), will hold two more concerts in the downtown Seattle area this year after a concert on Tuesday.

You shouldn't expect an event as big as the Capitol Hill Block Party, or Bumbershoot.

Instead, the concerts will be low-key affairs designed to stimulate downtown in order to help it recover from its economic slump caused by pandemic. Amazon announced that the concerts would feature local and emerging artists, and be free for employees and the public.

The concerts are held at the Sixth Avenue playfield, between Lenora Street and Blanchard Street.

Grace Love was the Seattle-based R&B singer who performed on Tuesday. Zach Person is scheduled to perform at 5 pm on June 6, and King Youngblood will be performing the same time on July 19.

The 45-minute performances were part of an effort by Amazon, as its employees returned to work this month. The majority of Amazon's Denny Triangle offices were open for business on May 2, 2015.

Amazon's employees are a source of hope for the economic recovery of the downtown area. The downtown visitor numbers are nearing pre-pandemic heights, but office worker foot traffic lags behind. According to the latest figures from the Downtown Seattle Association, worker foot traffic decreased in March and April following a monthly increase from September 2022 until February 2023.

According to the DSA, worker traffic in April was 44 percent of what it was in 2019.