Suffolk Downs is undergoing early phases of a construction project that’ll transform the former horse racing track into a 16 million square-foot behemoth of a development.
In the meantime, it’s bringing back the music.
Suffolk Downs is better known for horse racing, of course, but it also once hosted concerts by the Beatles, Jackson 5, Radiohead and other acts. Starting June 16, it’ll start hosting concerts again at The Stage at Suffolk Downs, an open-air, general admission venue with a capacity for 8,500 people.
Boston, one of the country’s largest concert markets, was already growing thanks to the addition of two venues last year: Roadrunner in Brighton and MGM Music Hall at Fenway adjacent to Fenway Park. The latest, which will straddle the East Boston/Revere border, has been a long time in the works.
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“We’d been looking for an outdoor venue for about 10 years,” said Josh Bhatti, a senior vice president at The Bowery Presents, which is operating the Suffolk Downs venue.
The first concert will be three consecutive days of the Re:SET Concert Series. Two of the acts playing that weekend, Steve Lacy and LCD Soundsystem, played last year at Roadrunner, a smaller space at a capacity of 3,500.
