Deer Creek Music Center: Indianapolis' Beloved Outdoor Amphitheater

Every summer, for a generation of Indianapolis music fans, the season wasn't complete without a night at Deer Creek.

The Venue

Deer Creek Music Center opened in 1989 in Noblesville, Indiana — just north of Indianapolis — as part of the wave of outdoor amphitheaters that transformed the American concert business in the late 1980s and 90s. The venue was designed for the summer concert experience: a covered pavilion for reserved seating, a sloping lawn for general admission, and the Indiana sky overhead.

The setting was genuinely beautiful. Deer Creek sat in a natural bowl surrounded by trees, with sightlines that made even the lawn seats feel connected to the stage. On a warm Indiana summer night, with the stars coming out and the music carrying across the grounds, it was exactly what a concert venue should be.

The Lineup

Deer Creek drew the biggest acts in rock, country, and pop throughout the 1990s. Tom Petty, the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Garth Brooks — the roster of artists who played Deer Creek reads like a greatest hits of the decade. For Indiana music fans, Deer Creek was the place where you saw the artists you'd been listening to all year, finally live and in person.

The Name Change

Deer Creek was renamed Verizon Wireless Music Center in 2001 as corporate naming rights became standard in the concert industry — a change that longtime fans never quite accepted. The venue, now known as Ruoff Music Center, continues to operate. But for a generation of Indianapolis concertgoers, it will always be Deer Creek.

The Deer Creek Music Center Indianapolis Retro T-shirt is for everyone who spent their summers on that lawn. Find it in the Indianapolis collection.