ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Coca-Cola Park is looking to get back into the concert business.
But while the Lehigh Valley IronPigs’ minor league stadium again will have music emanating from its baseball diamond — and will look to do more — it doesn’t mean the park is likely to become a steady stop on the concert circuit, General Manager Kurt Landes said.
- Coca-Cola Park will hold a concert by The Large Flowerheads, a favorite Lehigh Valley 1960s and ’70s cover band, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 7
- Tickets, at $12 each for general admission, are available now online. Tickets also will be available at the gate at $15 each
- Coca-Cola Park hopes success will let the park offer several such concerts a year
The park has announced just the second concert in more than a dozen years, and the fifth public concert ever, on the stadium’s ballfield.
The Large Flowerheads, a favorite Lehigh Valley 1960s and ’70s cover band, will perform from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 7, Coca-Cola Park announced.
Tickets, at $12 each for general admission, are available now online. Tickets also will be available at the gate at $15 each. Attendees will be allowed to sit in the seating bowl, on blankets on the field or in lawn chairs in designated areas.
There will be multiple concession stands selling food, soft drinks and alcohol, and parking for the event will be free.
It will be the second of what Landes called “medium-sized” musical acts to be offered on the ballpark’s field: The first was in July 2022, when regional cover band Go Go Gadjet drew almost 1,000 people for a similar show.
“With Large Flowerheads and Go Go Gadget, maybe we’ll find our market for people who enjoy the venue, enjoy being outside. It’s unique. I think people enjoy it here more than a traditional house, maybe.”Coca-Cola Park General Manager Kurt Landes
Coca-Cola Park has not had a concert by a national touring act since country duo Big & Rich drew an audience of 5,920 people for an Aug. 19, 2011, concert.
The only other concert held on the ballpark’s field was in July 2009, when Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp sold out the 11,000-capacity park.
But Landes said last year’s Go Go Gadjet concert was a success that led to The Large Flowerheads show.
“It’s not the same type of success as a Big & Rich or Dylan/Mellencamp/Nelson, but that was a great return, a foray, back into hosting concerts for the public on-field,” Landes said.
“With Large Flowerheads and Go Go Gadget, maybe we’ll find our market for people who enjoy the venue, enjoy being outside. It’s unique. I think people enjoy it here more than a traditional house, maybe.”
Concert market is difficult
The Dylan-Mellencamp-Nelson show was Coca-Cola Park’s first concert — held just a year after the ballpark opened.
After that show sold out, the park promised a future roster of major league music shows and the promoter, Chicago-based JAM Productions, pitched names such as Tim McGraw and the Dave Matthews Band for the stadium.
A year later, the promoter of the Big & Rich show said it, too, was successful enough to prompt it to plan other shows there – perhaps as many as six a year.
But no concerts were held on the field again until Go Go Gadget.
“We’d still love to do more; I’d love to do a major concert again. Truth is, it’s extremely difficult. There’s a lot of risk."Coca-Cola Park General Manager Kurt Landes
General Manager Landes said it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Because Coca-Cola Park’s primary purpose is being the home of the IronPigs, its schedule leaves little room for outdoor concerts, Landes said.
But beyond that, the outdoor concert market in recent years has become increasingly competitive – and risky, Landes said.
“It’s been, generally speaking, more difficult,” he said, noting that the Dylan/Mellencamp/Nelson concert came around the time of the great recession, when “the economy at that time was [risky] and promoters were less likely to take on risk. I think that hurt us around the time the ballpark opened.”
Since then, Landes said, concert competition in the area also has taken off, with the SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem, Allentown’s PPL Center and the Wind Creek Event Center at the casino in Bethlehem.
“There’s been an increase in regional concerts that have been more difficult for an outdoor venue to compete against,” he said. “And certainly we welcome the PPL Center, we welcome ArtsQuest and think what they’ve done is fantastic.
“And it’s not our primary business, obviously. So the increased capacity from those two venues and even other regional venues opened up.”
On top of that, Landes said, are trends in the industry that have artists sign exclusive agreements with promoters such as Live Nation or AEG that shut out unaffiliated venues, or restrict artists from playing within 100 miles of their venues.
Plus, outdoor venues carry the inherent risk of bad weather, making concerts an even more risky investment.
“We’d still love to do more; I’d love to do a major concert again,” Landes said. “Truth is, it’s extremely difficult. There’s a lot of risk.
"We’re an outdoor venue. People are traveling with major productions to put up and tear down, as opposed to a permanent venue that would have that there 24/7, 365. Or Musikfest, which has it up for 11 days in a row.”
Landes said some traveling musical acts will bring along their own stage — that was the case with Dylan, Mellencamp and Nelson — and “travel from ballpark to ballpark, venue to venue. And those are starting to pop up a little more, so we’ve had more interest of late.”
Sam Jellinek, manager of broadcasting and media relations for the IronPigs, said, "We’ve had great success when hosting concerts at Coca-Cola Park and we continue to drive interest annually from national promoters.
"We investigate each opportunity as it arises and would love to host more as they make sense for the facility and our fans."
Other musical offerings
Landes noted that Coca-Cola Park has offered musical events not on the field.
It has a formal stage on its plaza and offers 75 different local bands and musicians on Fridays and Saturdays during the season presenting concerts on the field for private groups, not open to the public.
“It’ll be fun. We’ve got to bump up our game and be way more visual.”The Large Flowerheads drummer Moe Jerant
“We’ll host concerts on-field for the B. Braun company picnic — we had a band on the infield for them,” he said. “Or we have a client-appreciation event for 300 of our partners and sponsors here; we had a band here for what we call Drinks on the Diamond, an appreciation event.
“It’ll be fun. We’ve got to bump up our game and be way more visual.”The Large Flowerheads drummer Moe Jerant
“So we’re no stranger to hosting concerts on-field. It’s not uncommon for us to host bands and musicians; it’s the level of Big & Rich and others have been much more difficult.”
The Large Flowerheads have performed before at the park – in one of those concerts on the park plaza inside its gates.
Moe Jerant, the drummer of The Large Flowerheads, said officials from Coca-Cola Park also asked the group to play at a craft beer and food truck festival it had, but it had a conflict.
At some point, Jerant said, park officials said, “It would be fun to have you guys here [for a concert], and we were, ‘Uh, what?’ And jumped at the chance.”
The group performs a set of hits from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Mamas & The Papas and more. It has played at large area festivals, such as Mayfair and Musikfest, and ticketed shows at Musikfest Cafe at the ArtsQuest Center.
From 2012-20, The Large Flowerheads won Best Band/Duo at the former Lehigh Valley Music Awards.
Jerant said the stage will be set up near home plate.
“It’ll be fun,” she said. “We’ve got to bump up our game and be way more visual.”
More concerts coming
Asked whether The Large Flowerheads now will set an expectation of such a concert each year, Landes replied, "I don’t want to jump too far too quickly, but if we start to see that we have success … I wouldn’t think just one a year.
“We’re never going to be a concert venue hosting, you know, hosting 20 to 25 concerts a year. But to find our niche hosting medium-sized groups that we think can be successful."Coca-Cola Park General Manager Kurt Landes
“Maybe it’s something we do two, three times a year,” he said. “We want to be sure we can do it successfully and that it’s done well.
“We’re never going to be a concert venue hosting, you know, hosting 20 to 25 concerts a year. But to find our niche hosting medium-sized groups that we think can be successful, so far, I’m encouraged by what we’ve seen with ticket sales with Large Flowerheads.
“Our primary business will always be the business of family fun and baseball. We might make a small profit on some of these events, but it’s also about making Coca-Cola Park visitor-friendly for all audiences, not just baseball fans.
“And it introduces people who might come for a concert that haven’t been to the ballpark before and might choose to come to an IronPigs game.”
