The cancellation of this year's Summer Nights concerts, which were to be held at Gas Works Park for the first time, may not be as big a blow to concertgoers as it appears.

Local promoters say most of the acts that were to have played the canceled series will probably end up at other local venues, such as the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, King County's Marymoor Park in Redmond and the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville.

Some of the acts may also end up at local theaters, nightclubs or casinos.

Acts that will be touring this summer have already laid out their tour routes, promoters say, and will not want to reroute outside the Northwest.

"You will see some, or probably most, of those acts play the market," said Dave Littrell of The Lakeside Group, which has long been involved in concert promotion.

Littrell is concert coordinator for Chateau Ste. Michelle and books, along with House of Blues Concerts, The Concerts at Marymoor, as the series is officially known.

"It's likely that some of those acts will end up at Marymoor or the winery," Littrell said.

Jeff Gilbert of House of Blues Concerts said it was possible they would pick up some of the shows. Some acts could even show up in theater venues, such as the 1,420-seat Moore or even the 2,807-capacity Paramount.

Sheila Hughes, chief operating officer of One Reel, the organization that presents Summer Nights, says 20 concerts had been planned for Gas Works. Negotiations had started but no acts had been signed, she said.

"I don't know how many were hard confirms," she said, "but there were at least a dozen acts that we were actively engaged in and had a very strong idea that they were coming. The series was well under way."

Summer Nights was to have been held at Gas Works this year because South Lake Union, the site of last year's series, is being developed into a city park. Pier 62/63, the original Summer Nights at the Pier site from 1991-2004, needs repair.

Some acts had become staples of the Summer Nights series since it was at the Pier, including Chris Isaak, the Indigo Girls, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt.

"Lots of acts are simply loyal to a venue," Littrell explained. "But they also need to play the market. They're not going to skip a market because a favorite venue is not available to them."

Capacity at Gas Works was to have been 3,800. Littrell said Marymoor's is 5,000 and the winery's 4,500. ZooTunes, Woodland Park Zoo's summertime concert series, has a capacity of 3,700. The Emerald Queen Casino's concert site in Tacoma can hold 2,500. The Premier nightclub in Seattle can handle 1,750, while the Showbox nightclub has a 1,150 capacity.

The Gas Works cancellation Tuesday, which came after substantial protest from nearby residents, was timely because now is when summer shows are being booked. Some Chateau and Marymoor acts are already signed and tickets may go on sale soon.

"In terms of booking the season," Littrell said, "we are really quite in the throes of it right now."

Hughes said the Gas Works series cancellation was "a little windfall" for other local promoters. She doesn't blame them for scrambling to grab some of the acts Summer Nights used to have a lock on.

"If I were them," she said, "I would be doing the same."

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312, pmacdonald@seattletimes.com

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