By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-25 19:57:42 | Updated at 2025-04-05 15:39:06
1 week ago
Queens civic leaders issued a dire warning about what the loss of summer concerts at Forest Hills Stadium would mean for the area — calling the possibility “nothing short of a travesty.”
Tom Grech, president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, joined local businesses and music lovers to back the iconic venue after The Post revealed that the NYPD wouldn’t issue noise amplification permits for the 2025 season.
“The decision to deny Forest Hills Stadium the necessary permits to host its summer concert series is nothing short of a travesty — one that will have severe economic and cultural consequences for Forest Hills and beyond,” Grech said in a statement Monday.
“For more than a decade, Forest Hills Stadium has been a catalyst for economic growth, a steward of our community, and a world-class venue that has brought joy to thousands,” he said. “Shutting it down for the summer is an enormous loss for local businesses, the hundreds of workers who rely on the stadium for jobs, and the concertgoers who make Forest Hills a destination.”
The stadium on the West Side Tennis Club’s property is in the center of the wealthy Queens neighborhood — and just one block away from the busy, restaurant-lined Austin Street. It neighbors residential neighborhoods where locals say the noise can be heard for miles.
Although Grech didn’t name the “small, vocal group” he blamed for jeopardizing the venue’s future, the Forest Hills Garden Corporation successfully pressured the NYPD into withholding permits by denying the department permission to close privately owned streets around the stadium.
The homeowners’ group has long maintained that its members’ lives have been upended by the increasingly loud concerts blaring into their backyards and reverberating through their walls — but Grech claimed the number of residents who support the stadium is far greater than the number annoyed by it.
“The idea that a handful of individuals can wield this kind of outsized influence to the detriment of an entire neighborhood is both outrageous and unacceptable,” Grech fumed.
Freezing this summer’s concert series — already slated with 13 shows by the likes of Phish and the Black Keys — would not only be an economic loss, but a cultural loss, critics said.
“There’s no other experience like it in the entire city or state of New York, and it feels magical how everyone can come in solidarity and enjoy themselves, dance and sing along. It feels like one giant party,” Michael Perlman, a preservationist and lifelong Forest Hills resident, told The Post.
Perlman spearheaded a campaign to save the stadium when plans were floated in 2010 to demolish the decaying venue and turn it into condos.
Musical greats like Frank Sinatra, Donna Summers and Stevie Nicks played at the venue before it fell into disrepair in the 1980s through the 2000s, but the music came back to the venue in 2013 after an extensive renovation of the 13,000-seat venue.
In the years since, Perlman has noticed his neighborhood transforms into a de-facto summer town that draws in tourists visiting the venue.
“I walk along Austin Street and I see how they had the restaurant hopping over the course of the concert season. Small businesses add much, much character,” Perlman said.
Plus, the renovations helped land the stadium numerous accolades, including this year’s Billboard title for best East Coast amphitheater.
“The stadium is grand and monumental and simultaneously feels intimate in certain ways. Is it truly the best of both worlds,” Perlman said.
Annual performances ramped up after the pandemic, along with noise levels — last summer, the stadium was issued 11 violations at last summer’s concert series.
The stadium promised that the show would go on this summer, despite the exploding tension.
“The stadium continues to move forward in preparation for the 2025 season despite the outcry of a vocal minority,” West Side attorney Akiva Shapiro said.
