An outdoor music venue is opening at Suffolk Downs in 2023

The Stage at Suffolk Downs will welcome up to 8,500 fans to concerts starting next spring.

The Stage at Suffolk Downs, a seasonal outdoor music venue, will open at the former racetrack in spring 2023. Handout Photo

By Kevin Slane

December 8, 2022

Another large music venue is planning to open its doors in Boston next spring, at a site with a lengthy live music history: Suffolk Downs.

Bowery Presents, the company that owns and operates local venues The Sinclair, Roadrunner, and Royale, announced on Thursday that it will open The Stage at Suffolk Downs, a seasonal outdoor music venue, at the longtime home of the East Boston racetrack.

Located on the infield of the race track, the Stage at Suffolk Downs (525 William F McClellan Highway) will be able to accommodate up to 8,500 people. That will make it Bowery’s largest venue in Boston, eclipsing Roadrunner (3,500), the Boston Landing venue that opened in March 2022.

Compared to other local outdoor venues, The Stage at Suffolk Downs will be notably larger than the 5,000-seat Leader Bank Pavilion near Boston’s Seaport district, although still far shy of the 19,000 capacity of Xfinity Center in Mansfield.

The venue will be built in partnership with The HYM Investment Group LLC, the company that is redeveloping Suffolk Downs. In recent years, the company has held community programming on the race track, with offerings like drive-in movies, fitness classes, and a number of family-friendly events.

The Suffolk Downs grounds have a significant legacy in Boston music history: The Beatles became the first band to perform at the grounds in 1966, and were followed through the decades by artists like The Jackson 5, Radiohead, and Bjork. According to a press release, Bowery Presents plans to “honor the site’s musical legacy” with The Stage at Suffolk Downs, while also “reinvigorating the space” for its spring 2023 opening to bring an open-air summer concert experience to all.

No concerts have been announced yet for The Stage at Suffolk Downs’ opening lineup, but fans looking for more information can visit the venue’s website or follow along on Instagram or Facebook.