Summer season at Oswego’s Venue 1012 to feature two bands at each concert

An estimated 3,500 people came to Venue 1012 in Oswego last June to hear Sparks Fly – The Taylor Swift Experience – the biggest crowd the village’s outdoor amphitheater has ever seen.

On June 5, a Taylor Swift band will again kick off Venue 1012’s summer season when Fearless: The Unofficial Taylor Tribute takes the stage. The free Thursday night concert will also feature the tribute band Beyond the Blonde, which pays tribute to the music of Pink, Gwen Stefani and Lady Gaga.

Two bands will perform during all of the concerts at Venue 1012 this summer. The season will run through Sept. 6.

“We’re now doubling the fun,” Oswego events manager Julie Hoffman said. “We’re kind of going with the double feature strategy this summer so that people come out early and stay a little bit later and feel like, at least for the ticketed shows, that they are getting a bigger bang for their buck.”

The village hosted its first summer events series at Venue 1012 in summer 2022.

Along with the free concert, there will be four ticketed Saturday night concerts. In addition, three free movies will be shown as part of the summer season – “Inside Out 2,” “Transformers One” and “Wicked.”

Tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. March 4 at venue1012.com.

The season will feature bands paying tribute to a number of different groups and musical genres. That includes The Atomic Punks on June 20, which will pay tribute to early Van Halen.

The Atomic Punks first formed in 1994. According to the group’s website, former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth said Atomic Punks was the “best tribute to Van Halen ever.”

On July 12, Loudernow will pay tribute to emo and pop-punk bands like Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Blink 182 and Dashboard Confessional. That same night, Grunge – The Sounds of Seatte will perform songs by such groups as Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

The music of The Eagles, Toby Keith, Luke Combs, Luke Bryan and Morgan Wallen also will be represented during the season. A full band schedule is at venue1012.com.

“We’re feeling that we found some bands that are popular, that have drawn some really good crowds in the last to two years in previous places that they’ve played,” Hoffman said.

Plans are to hold a second free Thursday concert this season that will feature youth community bands.

“It’s going to take a little bit more to put that all together,” Hoffman said. “I hope that will give lots of people the opportunity to be on that stage and for their parents and their grandparents and the community to really see what we have here in the way of youth artistry.”

Venue 1012 is also available for rent. For more information about Venue 1012’s season and to buy tickets, go to venue1012.com.