Forest Hills Stadium, in Queens, was built for tennis, but it has served as a concert venue for decades. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Simon And Garfunkel all performed there. Jimi Hendrix once opened for the Monkees at Forest Hills. After a redesign and reopening in 2013, Forest Hills has served as an important stop on the touring circuit, one that's arena-sized but somehow more intimate and special. But since it's an open-air venue in a residential area, it has been at the center of a legal battle over noise complaints. After years, that dispute has finally been settled, as Forest Hills has agreed to limit the number of shows that it'll host.
Shortly after Forest Hills Stadium's reopening, a number of concerts at the building were loud enough to violate New York City noise code. Residents of the area filed lawsuits and hired an acoustic noise consultant to measure noise levels at shows like a King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard appearance in 2024. Yesterday, New York's PIX 11 reported that the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, West Side Tennis Club, and Tiebreaker Productions have come to a three-way agreement that'll allow Forest Hills shows to continue for years.
The three parties all agreed that Forest Hills Stadium will only host 28 concerts per season and that the venue will redirect some of its revenue into the Forest Hills neighborhood. Here's what the West Side Tennis Club, the complex that includes Forest Hills, said in a statement:
This agreement is an important step forward for the West Side Tennis Club and our neighbors. For more than a century, the Club has been part of the fabric of Forest Hills, bringing generations of members together through tennis and welcoming visitors from around the world to the Stadium for historic moments in sport and music. Reaching this resolution took patience and constructive dialogue from all sides. We are grateful to our members as well as the Forest Hills community for their patience and engagement throughout this process. We look forward to building on this work in support of our membership, the Stadium’s continued success, and the benefit of the neighborhood we are proud to call home.
Forest Hills' 2026 concert season is already over. Right now, the only shows on the venue's schedule are a pair of gigs from Fontaines D.C. and Iceage, set for Sep. 28-29 next year.