See boats and hear overtures at RADY SHELL

San Diego’s answer to the Hollywood Bowl is hard to resist. When you sit in one of its red folding chairs or flop on the artificial grass of the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park downtown, you may be distracted by passing sailboats to your left. Or jutting skyscrapers to your right. Or the sun sinking into the harbor.

The Shell, which opened in 2021, has a layout that’s flatter and simpler than the Hollywood Bowl’s. (But you can’t bring your own picnic.) It stands on a 3.7-acre finger of land that reaches from downtown’s convention center into San Diego Bay. A few blocks to the north stands Petco Park, home to the Padres.

The Shell is home to the San Diego Symphony and a summer schedule of classical and pop shows, including “movies in concert” with the symphony playing the score. On the schedule for this summer: Mariachi Los Camperos (July 30), Trombone Shorty (Aug. 6), Van Morrison (Sept. 4) and dozens of others. From April through August, you can often eavesdrop on orchestra rehearsals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The symphony posts a schedule online, to be updated in late May. (In November, the symphony unveils a $125 million overhaul of its indoor venue, the Jacobs Music Center.)

BONUS TIP: On nearby Shelter Island, Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay (next to Humphreys Half Moon Inn) has been staging summer concert series (actually spring through November) in its 1,400-seat outdoor theater since the early 1980s — offering just about every genre except classical music.