QUEENS — Popular bands Modest Mouse and Brand New are set to rock the Forest Hills Stadium this summer, organizers announced Tuesday, after they addressed residents' concerns about holding shows at the venue in the wake of a long hiatus.
Modest Mouse, an American indie rock group from Washington state, will play at the stadium on Saturday, Aug. 9, along with Brand New, an alternative rock band from Long Island, organizers announced.
The concert will follow a show by the Grammy-winning country group Zac Brown Band scheduled for Saturday, June 21, which sold out in minutes, according to organizers.
The concerts are among at least six shows expected at the venue, where the Beatles once played, this summer. Shows there had stopped for the most part in the 1980s until the Mumford & Sons concert last year.
Organizers said they are still working on booking other shows for this summer. This season's concerts will be followed by 12 more over the next two years.
Representatives for the bands did not respond to emails seeking comment, but both wrote posts about the show on their Facebook pages. “Happy to confirm THIS,” Brand New wrote in a post on its site.
Concert organizers held a meeting Monday night in Forest Hills to address residents' concerns about street closures, noise, crowds and traffic jams caused by the performances as well as concerns that the Mumford & Sons show had been oversold.
Mike Luba, of Madison House Presents, who is promoting the concert series, said that last year's event was not oversold, with 16,000 tickets distributed, while the organizers had permission to let about 17,500 people into the stadium.
But he acknowledged that people who left their unassigned seats, in many cases to go to the bathroom, had a hard time returning. He also said there was an issue with overflowing toilets.
This year, there will again be portable toilets, but the aisles in the venue will be twice as wide as last year. Organizers are also installing a permanent stage, handrails and seats.
Luba said that with assigned seating this year, he does not expect concertgoers to line up at the stadium hours ahead of the concert, which was the case last year.
Residents who came to the meeting had mixed feelings about the concerts.
Aly Baiter, who works as a consultant, said that the stadium “is and has been a public venue space since 1923.
“That’s what this area was created for," she said. "My mother saw the Beatles there.”
Others said that crowds were a big nuisance for the neighborhood last year.
“I cannot tell you what torture it was that day,” Alex Tola, who lives in Forest Hills Gardens and owns a business on Austin Street, said of the Mumford & Sons concert. “What’s in it for us?”
Tickets for the Modest Mouse and Brand New show will be available to the general public beginning at 12 p.m. on May 1. Additional information and tickets to all 2014 Forest Hills Stadium events will be available here.
