Forest Hills Stadium’s summer concerts at risk amid noise dispute
Photo by Pat at Juno on Flickr
This season’s concerts at Forest Hills Stadium are at risk of cancellation as tensions between local residents and venue officials escalate over ongoing noise complaints. According to an NYPD Legal Bureau letter, the stadium’s new sound amplification permits were denied last week after the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation (FHGC) blocked the city from accessing the private roads surrounding the venue, as first reported by the New York Post. Unless FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club, which owns the historic stadium, reach an agreement on noise levels before the first scheduled concert on May 31, the shows will not go on.
A letter viewed by the Post states that without access to those roads, the NYPD cannot ensure public safety, forcing the city to revoke the concert permits. This season’s lineup already includes 13 scheduled shows, featuring acts like Phish, The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Leon Bridges, and Parcels.
The dispute marks the boiling point in a years-long conflict between residents and Forest Hills Stadium. For years, neighbors have complained about excessive noise from concerts and the hordes of attendees crowding their otherwise quiet, tree-lined streets.
Residents claim the noise spilling out of the open-roof venue rattles their walls, even cracking the plaster, according to images obtained by the Post. Locals say this has severely impacted their quality of life during the summer, keeping them up late at night and causing concern about rowdy concertgoers, some of whom have been captured urinating or littering on nearby lawns.
“This is an open-air stadium that is smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood, it butts up to homes, it butts up to buildings—that music is being pumped into people’s living rooms for hours at a time,” Sandra Mandell, who has lived a half mile from the stadium for 10 years, told the Post.
Residents have also raised concerns about the increasing number of shows booked in recent seasons. They argue that the venue wasn’t an issue when it hosted just over a dozen shows a season, but that number has tripled since the pandemic in 2020.
In response to these complaints, stadium officials have spent millions on sound mitigation, implemented a 10 p.m. curfew for shows, and taken other measures. However, residents say 11 of the 36 concerts hosted last summer exceeded local decibel limits.
The stadium has faced several lawsuits since 2023. In August, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Concerned Residents of Forest Hills. In October, five of seven claims brought against the venue operators by the FHGC were also thrown out, according to QNS.
A judge ruled that the local group had failed to prove that the noise from the shows constituted either a public or private nuisance. However, in a separate case, another judge found that the shows did indeed qualify as a public nuisance and ordered an independent sound expert to monitor the noise levels, with the stadium covering the costs, according to the New York Times.
In response, the stadium’s operators launched a petition last year to rally fan support, which received nearly 25,000 signatures.
In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Forest Hills Stadium said they plan to move forward with the concerts this year.
“Forest Hills Stadium is moving forward with our 2025 concert schedule as planned and our permitting timeline is on its standard schedule. As happens every season, the vocal NIMBY minority of Forest Hills Gardens are attempting to roadblock yet another enjoyable season of music.”
FHGC officials state that they are not seeking to completely end shows at the stadium, but rather aim to reach a compromise that eases residents’ concerns. The tennis club has dismissed reports of the denial of its permits as a “rumor” and claims it has not yet heard anything from the NYPD.
“Neither the Stadium’s owner nor operator have received any communication from the NYPD concerning sound permits, which have always been granted to the Stadium upon request,” Akiva Shapiro, attorney for West Side Tennis Club, told the Post.
“Because nothing has changed, the NYPD has not raised any concerns with the Stadium directly, and the City would risk significant liability if it were to abruptly shut the Stadium down, we can only assume that no such final decision has been made,” Shapiro continued. “We question where these rumors are coming from, find them extremely troubling, and are demanding answers from the highest levels of the Adams administration.”
Now over 100 years old, Forest Hills Stadium opened in 1923 at the West Side Tennis Club as the nation’s first tennis stadium and the birthplace of the U.S. Open. In the 1960s, the venue expanded to host live music acts, welcoming legendary performers like the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, and local stars Simon & Garfunkel.
The Beatles famously landed in a helicopter on a tennis court before their shows at the stadium on August 28 and 29, 1964, according to the venue.
After the U.S. Open moved to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in 1978, the stadium quickly fell into disrepair. It came close to demolition in 2010 when the West Side Tennis Club received an offer to replace it with condos, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The site was saved from demolition in 2013 when the stadium reopened as a concert venue, marking the beginning of a comprehensive restoration project that restored Forest Hills Stadium to its original glory while modernizing it. Since then, the venue has grown in popularity, renowned for its unique ambiance, acoustics, and historic charm, attracting more prominent acts over the years.
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