Forest Hills Stadium Summer Concerts Stalled Amid Neighbors Dispute

New York’s Forest Hills Stadium may remain quiet this summer.

The venue, located in the heart of a residential area in Queens, has been facing a series of lawsuits from angry residents over the sound from the loud summer concerts in their backyard.

The non-profit Forest Hills Garden Corporation, which encompasses the private community of Forest Hills in Queens, New York, filed a motion against the venue’s owner, The West Side Tennis Club, last year. The motion, filed in a Queens County court, asked a judge to prohibit “licensing, authorizing, allowing or otherwise causing any concerts to occur” at Forest Hills Stadium in 2025.

The motion also offered an alternative: that concerts at least be banned from occurring during the school year — between the months of September and June — and be limited to Fridays and Saturdays. Additionally, the motion asked the stadium to adhere to the city’s noise ordinance.

According to the New York Post, Forest Hills was denied its new sound amplification permits, an NYPD Legal Bureau letter of notice shows. The FHGC denied the city access to a series of private roads surrounding the venue, and according to Legal Bureau Inspector William Gallagher, the NYPD would be unable to manage public safety around the stadium without access to those roads. In a letter viewed by The Post, Gallagher noted that the city had to revoke the concert permits.

Forest Hills was set to host 13 shows this summer — including the jam band Phish, the indie-rockers of the Black Keys, and blues-rock group Alabama Shakes. The NYPD said these shows will no longer go on as planned — unless the tennis club and neighbors can reach an agreement regarding the noise problem ahead of the first show of the concert season on May 31.

“It is our hope that the West Side Tennis Club and FHGC come together and reach a solution to this issue so that the NYPD may resume issuance of sound amplification permits,” Gallagher wrote in the letter.

The FHGC said that they aren’t trying to take away concerts at the stadium; they just want to come to a resolution that benefits both neighbors and the venue.

“We remain committed to working with all stakeholders to find a balanced solution that addresses concert impacts while respecting our community,” FHGC president Anthony Oprisiu said in a statement.

The Tennis Club, on the other hand, said that this permit denial is just a rumor, and they haven’t heard anything from the NYPD directly regarding the matter. West Side Tennis Club attorney Akiva Shapiro said that “the City would risk significant liability if it were to abruptly shut the Stadium down” and “we can only assume that no final decision has been made.”

Since the stadium re-opened in 2013, there have been multiple complaints regarding the stadium’s noise levels. Marty Levinson, a neighbor of the stadium, told CBS News that he has two layers of windows, blinds, and curtains, however, during a show, “the windows start to rattle.” He told the news outlet that he’s lived a block away from the venue since the 1960s, but now, the music has gotten out of control.

“It’s disturbing to the point, for example, [that] some of our neighbors have sold their houses,” Levinson said.

However, the stadium’s operators are adamant that they are good neighbors, as shows end at or before 10 p.m., streets are cleaned before and after each show, and concertgoers are encouraged to visit local restaurants and bars on the stadium’s website.

Forest Hills Stadium, first built in 1923, was renovated in 2013. It has hosted legendary acts like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Summer.