Defiant Forest Hills Stadium promises summer concerts, puts neighbors on blast after NYPD says it can’t issue permits

Forest Hills Stadium defiantly pledged its summer concert season was going forward as planned — despite the city saying it couldn’t issue the permits needed for shows at the iconic venue.

The venue put neighbors on blast in a fiery social media post hours after The Post reported that the NYPD wouldn’t issue noise amplification permits for the 2025 season because the department was denied permission to close privately owned streets around the stadium by neighbors fed up with noise.

“As happens every season, the vocal NIMBY [not in my backyard] minority of Forest Hills Gardens are attempting to roadblock yet another enjoyable season of music,” the stadium’s official X account posted on Sunday.

“Forest Hills Stadium is moving forward with our 2025 concert schedule as planned and our permitting timeline is on its standard schedule,” the arena added.

The March 19 letter to stadium owners the West Side Tennis Club said the NYPD would cease any permits until it was given permission to close the streets — a necessary measure to “ensure public safety and welfare when events are hosted at the Stadium.”

An attorney for the club had initially claimed his client had never received the letter and dismissed its content as “rumors,” adding that the stadium had yet to officially apply for permits.

“Neither the Stadium’s owner nor operator have received any communication from the NYPD concerning sound permits, which have always been granted to the Stadium upon request,” West Side attorney Akiva Shapiro previously said.

But on Monday, the attorney said the social media statement “outlines our plans.”

“The stadium continues to move forward in preparation for the 2025 season despite the outcry of a vocal minority,” Shapiro said.

The NYPD verified the letter in a statement Monday, with a spokesperson saying the department had no stake in the fight between the stadium and the neighboring Forest Hills Garden Corporation. The city would happily re-issue the permits if the two parties came to an agreement, the spokesperson added.

“We understand that many people enjoy these concerts every summer, but we must be able to take appropriate action to keep people safe,” the NYPD told The Post. “We trust that the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club will be able to reach an appropriate compromise.”

The venue’s permit denial was issued after residents in the sleepy neighborhood sued the club, alleging 11 of the 36 concerts held at its stadium last summer exceeded local decibel-limits and turned their lives upside down with a barrage of wall-shaking sound.

After being unable to reach an agreement with the tennis club on the volume issue, the FHGC denied the venue and “its agents” access to its property, thus the NYPD cannot close the streets, according to the letter.

No permits would threaten 13 planned shows by groups and artists like Phish, Tyler Childers, Leon Bridges, the Alabama Shakes and the Black Keys.

Forest Hills Stadium was first built to host the US Open tennis tournament in the 1920s, and began holding concerts in the 1960s with legends like the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.

From the 1980s through the early 2000s the stadium fell into disrepair and little music was heard coming from its concrete walls — but in 2013 the concerts came back after an extensive renovation of the 13,000-seat venue.

Neighbors in Forest Hills have said they didn’t mind the venue when there were just a few shows per year — but that since the pandemic they’ve become upset with an uptick in shows and volume that’s followed.

“It went from a handful of concerts, a venue that fit the neighborhood, to a full scale commercial operation,” longtime Forest Hills resident Sandra Mandell said in a previous interview.

“After every concert, there’s a ton of litter everywhere. I hear my neighbors complain about noise, about people loitering in the backyard in their front yard, noise outside of their windows late into the night. People kind of fanning out into the neighborhood after they leave a concert,” she added.

“My hope is that there is a resolution, but the resolution has to respect this neighborhood and the residents of this neighborhood. I love the concerts. I do want to see them continue.”