10 years old and zero shows: How the music died at the Coney Island amphitheater

In the summer of 2016, the city opened what felt like a new era in its run at being the best beach city in America: an outdoor music venue next to the ocean, right on the boardwalk at Coney Island. The fanfare around its opening rippled with enthusiasm: 

"This location has it all," then-Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the opening. "Look at it. How many venues in this whole nation can boast of such a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean and open air and Coney Island, the legend of Coney Island, a legend that grows now."

Live Nation, which was brought on board to book shows at the 5,000-seat venue, was equally as excited, 

“We see it as an up-and-coming hip place in Brooklyn,” Dan Casale, the vice president for North American concerts for Live Nation Entertainment, said to the Times. “The location is stunning.”

Sting and Peter Gabriel opened the venue; the Beach Boys, Travis Scott, Andrew Dice Clay and Phil Lesh played shows that summer too. 

Now here in 2026, the only one getting a sting are people expecting to see any beachfront music at all this summer. 

Ten years after opening, the enthusiasm for the open-air amphitheater has waned, as have any bookings for the space. After years of declining concert bookings and event announcements, the amphitheater will host no major shows or events this summer.

The gates around the venue are locked with a “private property, no trespassing” sign on the fence. The connected Childs building, the 1923 Coney terra cotta landmark that the amphitheater is built into (which is constantly in a state of being turned into … something), is also apparently dark for the season, with empty restaurant counters, dark TVs and chairs filling the cavernous interior. 

Now, just like Childs, the amphitheater itself feels less like the future of Coney Island and more like another disused relic of its past. 

There's one big reason the venue will host no concerts this year.