Ken Haidaris got his start in business in his family’s restaurant, the locally renowned Sunrise Inn of Warren, where he’s still a co-owner.
He didn’t have plans to enter the entertainment industry.
But when Walt English, who had been putting on tribute band shows at the Warren Community Amphitheatre downtown, passed away, Haidaris didn’t want to let the work English had done fade away. He started Sunrise Entertainment to keep the River Rock at the Amp concert series going.
That was nearly a decade and a half ago.
Today, Sunrise Entertainment still offers the River Rock series, bringing tribute bands to the amphitheater all summer. Sunrise has also added shows — Broadway productions, non-tribute musical acts, comedians and more — at venues like the Packard Music Hall, as well as the Edward W. Powers Auditorium at the DeYor Performing Arts Center and the Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown.
More recently, the renovated Robins Theatre in Warren has been a frequent spot for Sunrise events. And in late 2023, the booking company and promoter launched a new country music series at the nearby Yankee Lake Ballroom in Brookfield Twp. called Country at the Boot.
“There was no grand plan,” said Haidaris, president of the entertainment group. “It just happened.”
Part of the growth has been knowing which kinds of acts and shows fit the Mahoning Valley’s different venues best. Packard and Powers lend themselves to theater, Haidaris said, while the Robins is good for “intimate” shows, like blues acts. And Sunrise has been able to bring some notable names, like Kenny G and Blue Oyster Cult, to the relatively small city. Over the years, Haidaris has made connections in the business, and he works with Tom Simpson, owner of venue The Kent Stage, to book acts, too.
Simpson started The Kent Stage more than 20 years ago. When Haidaris was looking to add more than tribute acts to Sunrise’s repertoire, he was told to reach out to Simpson. Today, Simpson works as Sunrise’s national entertainment coordinator, helping book those nontribute bands for the company.
Every community is different, Simpson said, and you have to know your market. While Kent has an “artsy vibe,” the acts he books in Warren need to have “name recognition and be pretty mainstream or were mainstream,” Simpson said.
“And if you’re a rock-and-roll band, that’s even better,” he added.
Simpson also had a part in the redeveloped Robins Theatre, offering feedback as a fellow venue owner. No one had been in the theater for years, and it needed a lot of work. But that was work that largely went to local businesses, which Simpson thinks is important. Keeping money in a community when possible, instead of sending it elsewhere, is key.
“Because that money recycles,” he said. People who live and work locally are also the ones who are going to come to a show locally.
And Haidaris knows Sunrise Entertainment is about more than the second word in its name, too. It’s about economic development.
When Sunrise Entertainment was started near the end of the Great Recession, Warren wasn’t doing well. Storefronts were boarded up, and the city was quiet.
“You could bowl through the streets, you know?” Haidaris said.
Sunrise Entertainment has played a part in bringing the city back to life, alongside the development and renovation of buildings like Robins Theatre by developer Mark Marvin and others. People didn’t have many reasons to come into Warren before Sunrise added those regular entertainment opportunities, he said. Now, they do.
Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said that is all critical as the region looks to grow its population to meet workforce needs. Warren has to be a good place to live.
“It’s become imperative that we have the quality of life necessary to retain and attract talent,” he said.
And, Coviello said, bringing thousands of people into downtown Warren every weekend has to help the city’s restaurants and other businesses. It’s more profitable to operate a business in a busy downtown, and it makes the chamber’s work of attracting new businesses there much easier.
Haidaris sees the impact firsthand at Sunrise Inn when there’s a show at the Robins or Packard theaters, noting that the restaurant is about 15 to 20% busier those nights.
And the coming months will be as busy as ever for Sunrise Entertainment, with plans to present everything from stand-up comedy to Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson tribute acts. And that’s just the beginning of the group’s plans to keep Warren’s venues full in 2024.
“It brings people downtown, and there’s nothing more satisfying than when you’re on the sidewalk and you see people lined up on the sidewalk to get in. You see cars lining the sidewalks,” Haidaris said. “There’s an energy downtown, where people are walking, and it’s a wonderful feeling to see downtown Warren vibrant again.”