A limited number of KBA Early Entry Experience passes will be available for this event. Look for the pop up box when you add tix to your cart to add this pass. The pass must be added at time of purchase. 

KBA Early Entry Experience Includes:

• 30-minute early entry with required check-in at Gate 5
• Heavy hors d’oeuvres served
• Private area with bar service
• Two (2) complimentary beverages of your choice

Know Before You Go information will be sent to you 3-4 days prior to the event. 

Disclaimer:

• Early Entry allows purchaser access to the Kona Club location only. If bringing a lawn chair, chairs are not allowed to be setup before gates open to the public. 
• There is NO artist involvement in this offer.
• Pass does not include backstage access. 
• Pass must be added to your cart at the time of ticket purchase.
• You must purchase a ticket to add this pass. 
• No name changes will be allowed. 
• If you miss early entry gate time you will be required to enter through the Main Gate with the general public. 
• General parking is free of charge in the Amphitheatre owned lots. Parking passes are not included. You may purchase parking at the time you purchase your ticket or through the link under "Parking Information" on this page. 

 

• Koka Booth Amphitheatre is a cashless venue.  
• Children 2 and under are free on the lawn for this event and do not need a ticket. 
  • All ages will require a ticket when sitting in Reserved Areas. 
• Day of Event Box Office sales opens 1 hour prior to gate time and closes once the main act takes the stage.
  • Hours are subject to change. 
• Taxes: Tickets for Koka Booth Amphitheatre events are subject to applicable taxes and fees. Taxes will be added on top of the posted ticket prices.
• Fees:
  • When ordering Online or by Phone through Etix additional fees will be added on top of the ticket price. A $2.50 order fee will be added to each order.
  • When purchasing in person at the Box Office a 3% processing fee will be added to each order. 

All dates, times, acts & ticket prices are subject to change without notice.

For more than four decades, Crowded House leader Neil Finn has been on an evolving, winding journey. Crowded House’s mid-Eighties hits like “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Something So Strong,” combined with albums like Woodface and Together Alone, set the standard for the period’s erudite jangle-pop while always pushing the band’s art forward.

 

That creative spirit brings Finn and his Crowded House bandmates to Gravity Stairs, their first new release since 2021’s Dreamers Are Waiting and eighth overall. Produced by the band with Steven Schram, the album shows Crowded House in its current incarnation — Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn’s sons Elroy and Liam — as sharp as ever, feeling musically adventurous, and still capable of reaching the staggering highs that have made them an international favorite. It’s the act of climbing those figurative “gravity stairs,” inspired by a heavy stone staircase near where Finn vacations, that he likens to his own mindset as a creator.

 

The Gravity Stairs are symbolic of the struggle to ascend, acknowledging the opposing forces of weight on the mechanics of living. It’s an act of will everyday.

 

Finn describes that process in “Magic Piano,” which opens the album. Lush and sophisticated, the song’s arrangement captures an almost hallucinatory feeling of drifting upward. “Let the melody reign, oh yeah,” Finn sings, offering homage to what he calls his “slavish devotion to music.”

 

Finn’s résumé bears that out. From joining his brother Tim in the Eighties artful pop band Split Enz to leading Crowded House to his numerous solo efforts, Finn’s varied body of work is connected by his knack for penning meticulous, indelible melodies and impressionistic lyrics that demand multiple listens. It’s earned him devoted fans all over the globe.

 

“Magic Piano” marked one of the first songs the band — whose members currently reside in four different countries — attempted to work up in rehearsals ahead of their recording sessions for Gravity Stairs, which took place in Australia, New Zealand, and California. The second day they played it, it suddenly clicked.

 

“It was a very different song when we started playing it. It was probably ambitious as a first recording  because it’s not a simple song — it’s got a lot of twists and turns,” Finn says. “But the aim is to produce something that sounds effortless, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and that it’s always existed like that. That’s the art of record making.”

 

Other songs on Gravity Stairs do that in the best possible way. There’s a hyper-melodic, Brit-pop quality to “Teenage Summer “ which brims with sparkling vocal harmonies and a longing for connection. Finn imagined the song during the most isolated parts of the Covid lockdown, but instead of melancholy, it has a big, empathetic heart and hope to spare.

 

“It’s about trying to achieve some reality and being aware that connection is hard to make,” he says. “And even before Covid, it was hard to find closeness to people. That became particularly acute afterward.”

 

Themes of connection and love pop up in several places on Gravity Stairs. “All That I Can Ever Own” begins with a funky drum beat and shimmering keyboards as it examines impermanence through child rearing and property under threat by rising waters. By the time it reaches its conclusion, it’s arrived at something that sounds like jubilation. “There’s an awareness that you can’t really control the outcomes of what happens when you love someone,” Finn says. “Throughout your life there’s an element of letting go of anything other than the love you feel for somebody.”

 

Finn borrowed from his father’s war diary for “Some Greater Plan (for Claire),” drawing on a memory of a whirlwind romance in Italy for a melody that’s both seductive and emotional. “It was always a thing that came up. Dad would have this wistful look in his eye when he would talk about Italy,” Finn recalls. Finn’s brother Tim makes an appearance on the track, which is dedicated to a friend of Finn’s who’s no longer with us. Equally cinematic, the mysterious “Black Water, White Circle” peers through the world of dreams into the afterlife.

 

“Oh Hi,” a friendly tune with colorful spirals of guitar and a chorus worthy of repeat sing-alongs, makes a promise: “I won’t forget.” The tune has a deep connection to Finn’s philanthropic efforts with So They Can, an international nonprofit focused on building schools in remote parts of Kenya and Tanzania. “I’m hoping the song comes across without needing to know the backstory,” Finn says, “but it’s very much inspired by these incredible kids and their magnificence.”

 

Gravity Stairs is bookended by a second song about the joys and agonies of creating. “Night Song” is almost like a waking dream, slipping into different rhythmic patterns and arrangements as it unfolds and following the siren call of creation through a scorpion-guarded desert landscape and out through desolate stretches of night. “Wish there was another way,” Finn sings, knowingly.

 

“That was inspired by a guy I heard outside my hotel window at 3 in the morning. He was ranting and saying amazing things,” Finn says. “You share that part of the night with people who are on his kind of trip. I felt a strange kinship with him.” The unknown man’s voice is the last sound on Gravity Stairs and his wondrous exclamation is familiar in a way to Finn, who’s experienced his share of late nights trying to unlock the magic of a composition.

 

“People will certainly relate to the idea that no matter what you’re thinking about at 2 in the morning, it feels like obsession,” he says. “And when I’m working on songs, that’s the reality: I’m going to bed with a tune going round in my head, and I’ll wake up with a tune going round in my head.”

 

And as he has so many times before, Finn will make the decision to scale those gravity stairs yet again to see what awaits at the top.

Koka Booth Amphitheatre has enhanced it's public safety policy to include a clear bag policy. 

Allowed:

• Bags 6"x 8" or smaller are permitted.
• Clear bag that does not exceed 12" x12" x 9".
• Medical and parenting bags. 

All bags are subject to search.

Outside Food & Beverage are not allowed for this event.  You are allowed to bring one factory-sealed plastic bottle of water (1 per person). No glass/cans/flavored water. 

Our Concession stands will be open selling a variety of food and beverages. Check out the menu HERE.   

Restaurant partners will also be available if you'd like to pre-order food and have it waiting for you when you arrive. Please check back for a listing of Picnic in the Park Partners. 

We pride ourselves on bringing a wide variety of events to Cary, NC. What our guests are allowed to bring into each event varies from event to event.   Please review the event page you are attending for specific information regarding that event. 

Guests can bring the following items to Concerts:

• Bags 6"x 8" or smaller are permitted.
• 12" x12" x 9" Clear bags only.
• Factory-sealed plastic bottles of water (1 per person). 
  • No glass/cans/flavored water.
• Empty reusable non-glass water bottle up to 1 Liter. 
  • Water Fill Stations located in the Cobblestone Courtyard.
• Lawn chairs: Please remove chair from bag at security checkpoint. 
  • No Footrest, Canopy, Lounge, Tri-Fold or Swinging Chairs.
• Rain Coats.
• Ponchos.
• Strollers (allowed on the lawn only).

All small clutches & clear bags are subject to search.

Prohibited items MUST be returned to guests’ vehicle before entering.  

Please leave the following items at home:  

• Alcohol
• Audio & Video Recording
• Bags  (Unless clear & approved size)
• Backpacks
• Balloons, Banners & Signs
• Blankets, Towels, Mats of any kind including Yoga Mats
• Brochures/Stickers/Handouts
• Confetti/Glitter
• Coolers
• Drones
• Fireworks
• Food & Beverages
• Go Pros, Audio or video recorders
• Grills & Open Flames
• Hula Hoops
• Illegal Drugs
• Laser Pointers
• Noise Makers
• Pets of any kind (excluding service animals)
• Professional cameras with detachable lenses
• Selfie Sticks
• Sporting Equipment
• Tables of any size
• Tablets of any kind
• Tarps & Plastic sheeting
• Tents/Staking
• Umbrellas of any size
• Wagons/Carts
• Weapons of Any Kind (Include but not limited to knives, guns, tasers, chains, mace, studded/spiked jewelry)

PREMIERE PARKING: A limited number of Premiere Parking will be available for $25 in advance and will be sold at the event, if spaces are available. Parking spaces will be held closest to the Main gate. Pass entitles 1 car to cark in Premiere Parking section in the FRONT of the Preferred Lot.

PURCHASE PREMIERE PARKING

PREFERRED PARKING: A limted number of Preferred Parking will be available for $20.00 in advance and will be sold at the event, if spaces are available. Parking spaces will be held across from the Main gate. Pass entitles 1 car to park in the Preferred Parking section in the BACK of the Preferred Lot.

PURCHASE PREFERRED PARKING

• Parking passes may be purchased at the box office in person, by phone through Etix or online at etix.com.  

• Parking lots open 1 hour before venue gates open.
• Purchasing a Parking Pass is NOT a ticket for the event, and is not valid for entry into the event.
• Please present your Parking Pass upon arrival. 

GENERAL PARKING: Koka Booth Amphitheatre has approximately 1500 free spaces available.  Parking is free of charge in Amphitheatre-owned lots. Some local businesses may charge a fee for parking in their lots.

ACCESSIBLE PARKING: A limited number of accessible parking spaces are available on a first-come-first-served basis with the proper hang tag or license plate.

DROP OFF & PICK-UP LOCATION: If using a taxi, Uber, etc please follow the signs & our Parking Staff to the pick-up & drop-off area.