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Trey Anastasio To Reopen Beacon Theatre With June Full-Capacity, In-Person Shows
Jake Silco – Beacon Booking
Trey Anastasio, posing in the stands at New York’s Beacon Theatre during The Beacon Jams residency in 2020, will headline the venue’s first post-pandemic shows with physical audiences come June.
Update (May 27, 4 p.m. ET): Both of Trey Anastasio’s June concerts at New York’s Beacon Theatre sold out immediately upon onsale on Thursday afternoon.
“Trey was the only artist to play live at The Beacon during the pandemic, so we’re honored that he’ll be the first artist back on our stage playing for a packed house,” said James Dolan, MSG Entertainment executive chairman and CEO, in a statement. “There’s no question people are eager to start gathering to once again experience events they love – and are more than willing to get vaccinated to do so. We’re focused on opening up all our venues to not just usher in the return of live entertainment, but of New York.”
May The Beacon Jams continue – this time, with fans in the stands.
Trey Anastasio, who brought a high-concept livestreaming residency to Manhattan’s iconic Beacon Theatre last October and November, will play the venue’s first shows with full-capacity physical audiences since the pandemic began, Madison Square Garden Entertainment announced Wednesday.
The Phish frontman will take the stage for two solo acoustic shows on June 22 and 23, days after making his own post-pandemic return to the stage with three shows at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on June 18-20.
Attendees over the age of 16 will be required to provide proof of full vaccination upon entry for the shows, which will be the Beacon’s first with full-capacity audiences in 468 days by the time Anastasio performs.
About a month after his Beacon gigs, Anastasio will hit the road with Phish, which will play sheds and arenas from late July to Halloween.
The bookings continue a fruitful relationship between Anastasio, Phish, the Beacon and Madison Square Garden Entertainment. Prior to The Beacon Jams, Trey Anastasio Band headlined the theater four times between 2012 and 2019, including a sold-out, two-night December 2014 run that sold 5,540 tickets and grossed $223,320.
Phish, meanwhile, has been one of the most reliable draws at Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s flagship venue for more than two decades. The band’s most recent shows there, its annual New Year’s run to close out 2019, sold 76,079 tickets and grossed $6.7 million. It’s Baker’s Dozen run of 13 shows at Madison Square Garden in summer 2017 sold 227,385 tickets and grossed $15 million.
Most recently, Anastasio used the Beacon Theatre for The Beacon Jams, the eight-week livestreaming residency that was the subject of a January Pollstar cover story. The residency benefitted the Divided Sky Fund, housed under Phish’s WaterWheel Foundation and created to finance an addiction treatment facility in Vermont, and brought in $1.2 million for the cause.
“Everybody came together in the community, and it was beyond our wildest dreams that we would raise $1.2 million in donations,” Anastasio said of the residency, which featured him reimagining his Phish and Trey Anastasio Band catalogs for legions of virtual fans.
As for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Anastasio’s Beacon shows are just the latest components of the company’s reopening news. On May 23, Madison Square Garden welcomed 15,000 fans for a New York Knicks playoff game versus the Atlanta Hawks – it’ll do the same Wednesday night – and, come June 19, the Tribeca Festival will hold its closing night event at Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall with a full capacity, completely vaccinated audience. The festival announced Wednesday that the film screened at the Radio City event will be a still-untitled documentary produced by Dave Chappelle.
Anastasio’s June Beacon shows go onsale on May 27 at 12 p.m. ET. For more about Anastasio and the Beacon Theatre, revisit Pollstar‘s Beacon Jams cover story and Anastasio interview from January. And for more about Anastasio’s team at Red Light Management, revisit this year’s Impact 50, which features RLM founder Coran Capshaw.