Garrett Zimmerman wants to bring more diverse events and crowds to the Pearl and he wants to have fun doing it.

The new general manager of Stable Hall, the 950-person venue built out of the Pearl Brewery’s old draft horse stables, said he wants to take advantage of the partnerships, local music and family-friendly opportunities in San Antonio. 

“San Antonio is a phenomenal city,” Zimmerman said. “I have been here for a short time, and I have loved every moment with every person I’ve interacted with.”

Local musical acts are important, he said. Bringing in bands that are just starting out is an opportunity to support the community and catch great artists before they get bigger.

“I have a real deep appreciation for the fact that every band was a local band at one point or another,” he said. “Giving those bands an opportunity is one of the most important things that I can do.”

He also wants to take advantage of San Antonio’s culture and geography. There’s an opportunity to tap into the Hispanic music scene, he said, and bring Conjunto, Norteño, Banda and other genres to Stable Hall.

“You can expect a lot more variety of events. Something that I haven’t seen a ton of on the calendar is a lot of Hispanic-based events,” Zimmerman said. “I’d really like to dive into the local market here.”

Stable Hall will have a free concert series on Sep. 19, 26 and Oct. 10 for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Those concerts will be family-friendly, another important element for Zimmerman. Shows that are available for kids can help bring people in and feel at home in a venue, he added. Those same kids will then be more likely to come back in the future.

“One of the blessings about being an all-ages venue is that parents can bring their 10-year-old with them and they can see their first concert, which is something that always gets me choked up,” Zimmerman said. “Part of doing concerts is you’re making memories for people.”

Stable Hall opened in January 2024 at 307 Pearl Parkway as a premier music and events venue that can accommodate 950 guests. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

When events go well for performers and for attendees, he added, that will bring good acts back again and again. Stable Hall will try to bring in different kinds of shows than you might find in Austin, but how San Antonio responds is important.

“It’s really about what a market will support. If people come to town and the show doesn’t do well, they may not come back to town. So the important thing that the people [here] can do is make sure, if they see their artists coming to town, that they get out and support that show,” he said.

Zimmerman wants to expand those experiences beyond the single, circular wall of Stable Hall. The diverse community of businesses at the northern end of San Antonio’s River Walk offers plenty of ways to match concerts with other events and enhance local experiences, Zimmerman said.

But he also hopes to connect with other venues across town.

“I like to try and find ways that venues can cooperate together, ways that you can do citywide events where we’re going to make an initiative for a free concert weekend,” Zimmerman said. “Maybe we partner up with some other venues of similar size around town. I’ve seen that kind of stuff happen before, and it’s really, really awesome.”

Those are opportunities he’s created in other roles in other cities.

He served as director of operations for TempleLive and helped launch or relaunch venues in Ohio, Arkansas and Illinois. Before that, he took on multiple roles at Thompson House, a venue in Cincinnati, where he grew up.

Zimmerman did “everything from bartending, barback, stage hand, ticket taker, bouncer, I ran sound, played on the stage, you name it.”

His time in the industry has bred a humble approach to his job and working with his staff.

“I always tell my staff I’m the least important person in the room. If the security guards don’t show up, if the ticket takers aren’t there, the sound guys aren’t there, the stagehands aren’t there, we can’t have a show,” Zimmerman said. “I’m the one person where if I don’t show up to work, everything can still happen.”

His job, he said, is to make sure his staff are in a position to succeed, enjoy themselves and then share those feelings with attendees.

When his team is excited to be there and takes ownership over the venue, that’s when the experience becomes truly special, Zimmerman said.

Since opening in January of 2024, Stable Hall has hosted Fitz and the Tantrums, Mat Kearney, Kat Edmonson and a variety of other artists.