Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Passion Pit to Headline First Ticketed Concerts at Lawn on D

Photo courtesy of Marlo Marketing

Lawn on D, the experimental, multipurpose venue that opened in South Boston last August, will offer ticketed concerts for the first time starting this summer.

On June 17, indie folk band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros will return to Boston after a memorable performance at Boston Calling last May, during which frontman Alex Ebert started a dance party with photographers in the photo pit before climbing over barricades and into the crowd of screaming fans packed into City Hall Plaza.

And on July 23, local favorites Passion Pit will take over the Lawn on D for a much bigger affair than their recent intimate performance at the Sinclair, part of Converse’s five-day Rubber Tracks Live series.

There has been a ticketed event at the Lawn on D before, which usually plays host to free activities, such as the Fire and Ice Festival in January and Illuminus D in October, in addition to its regular lineup of outdoor games and food trucks. In February, visitors paid $3 or $5 for one or two runs of tubing on a 70-foot slope.

The upcoming shows won’t be the first concerts held on the Lawn, either. In October, local duo Aimee Mann and Ted Leo, known as The Both, headlined Sound of Our Town, a free show where the Boston Music Awards also announced their 2014 nominees.

But the Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Passion Pit shows will mark the first time that people will have to pay up for a spot to enjoy music at the venue. The concerts are jointly organized by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which owns and operates the Lawn on D, and Bowery Boston, the local promoter that owns and operates a number of venues around the city, including the Sinclair and the Royale.

“One of our goals for the space this year was to try to do some different ticketed events, whether they were music-related, or food- and beverage-related, because really our ultimate goal is to test the space,” says Beth Torrey, director of strategic programming at MCCA. “With the goal of doing this, Bowery expressed an interest in holding a ticketed event, so we were able to work together to make that happen.”

Although Bowery Boston was the first promoter to approach the Lawn on D about using the space for a concert, it may not be the last.

“We’re open to working with any partner that presents the right opportunity,” says Torrey.

The Lawn on D is offering 3,000 general admission tickets for both the Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Passion Pit shows. For comparison, that’s a little more than the 2,500-capacity at the House of Blues, and a little more than half of the 5,000-capacity at the nearby Blue Hills Bank Pavilion on the harbor. Concert-goers can plant themselves anywhere inside the 2.7-acre venue—the lawn itself, which will be cleared of its regular lounge chairs, the picnic benches inside the covered tent, or even Swing Time if they want to. The bar will be open, and food and beverage provider Lincoln Tavern will offer specialty food items.

In addition to the concerts, Lawn on D will offer an array of events during its summer 2015 season, which kicks off with a celebration on May 15. Meanwhile, tickets are still available for the Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros concert, which went on sale last month.

“I do know [sales are] going really strong,” says Torrey. “We’re all thrilled about it—the excitement over the venue and the band.”

Tickets for the Passion Pit concert, which was announced today, will be available for sale this Friday, May 8, at noon.

Tickets for Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros on June 17 are $35 in advance, $38 day of show, available now at ticketmaster.com. Tickets for Passion Pit on July 23 are $41.50 in advance, $42 day of show.