the venue opened as coca-cola star lake amphitheater and hosted its first national act, billy joel, on june 17, 1990. a second show was added on june 18, 1990 due to the record-breaking response. since then, it has hosted many other "big-name" concerts. in 2000, the name of the venue was changed to the post-gazette pavilion after the pittsburgh post-gazette bought the naming rights. in february 2010, the publication announced it had not renewed its contract for naming rights to the facility. this led first niagara bank to snatch up the naming rights, after which the venue was named first niagara pavilion. the facility was renamed again in 2016, becoming keybank pavilion after keycorp finished its acquisition of first niagara.