Kennedy Center Honors to be held off-site for the first time in the ceremony’s history

For the first time in the nearly 50-year history of the event, the Kennedy Center Honors will not be held inside the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts this year, the center announced Friday.

With the main building currently closed to the public, and safety assessments still underway, the center announced it plans to move the celebration of American performing arts to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., which seats around 20,000 people compared to the 2,300 seats in the center’s Opera House, where the awards ceremony has traditionally been held.

This year’s ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 7. The center says they will announce this year’s honorees at a later date.

Even the 2020 Kennedy Center Honors, held belatedly in May of 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, included performances that were taped over several days at various locations throughout the Kennedy Center’s campus.

The change of venue for the storied event comes as the main theaters at the Kennedy Center have been closed since Sept. 15, after the center’s board voted to close for renovations. In court filings, Executive Director Matt Floca explained the closure would be reconsidered on a week-by-week basis, depending on…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/sports