The Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview is close to a sellout for at least one concert in its first season with its new name.
Tickets sold fast for Hozier’s May 21, 2024, performance at the Empower FCU Amphitheater in Syracuse when they went on sale Friday. Within hours, all of the seats under the pavilion were sold out. Only a limited number of lawn tickets are still available for $55.35 each (including fees) through Live Nation.
That may be surprising for Central New York music fans, who know Syracuse is traditionally a hot spot for country and classic rock concerts. Rap has also become a big draw at the New York State Fair’s free concert lineup in recent years, but a country singer reclaimed the top spot with a record crowd of 53,200 fans this past summer: Lainey Wilson.
Wilson is scheduled to perform at the Empower Amp on June 21, 2024, and has at least 200 seats still available under the pavilion (not including Verified Resale Tickets) plus the pit in front of the stage and lawn seats. Her ticket prices ($57.80-125.50) through Live Nation are similar to Hozier, but they’ve been on sale for almost a month.
Four other shows are booked for the Amp’s 2024 lineup so far, and thousands of seats are still available under the pavilion (and on the lawn) for all of them, including Judas Priest (May 22), Jordan Davis (July 18), ZZ Top/Lynyrd Skynyrd (Aug. 15), and Hootie & The Blowfish/Collective Soul/Edwin McCain (Sept. 6).
No outside lawn chairs for concerts with big crowds
Live Nation hinted early that big crowds are expected for Hozier, Wilson, Davis, and Hootie & The Blowfish, warning ticket purchasers that “outside lawn chairs will NOT be permitted inside the venue.” For Judas Priest and ZZ Top/Lynyrd Skynyrd, the ticketing company simply says it “reserves the right to not permit outside lawn chairs from being brought into the venue.”
ASM Global, which manages the amphitheater, will not allow outside lawn chairs for any concerts with more than 14,000 tickets sold. The venue capacity is 17,500 — 5,000 seats under the pavilion, 12,500 on the lawn — so the policy largely applies to sellouts or near-sellout shows.
For fans who don’t want to stand, a limited number of lawn chair rentals will be available for advance purchase online or at the venue on the day of the event, while supplies last.
Hozier: What’s the big deal?
So why is Hozier such a hot ticket? For starters, this is his first-ever Syracuse concert and just his second time in CNY after playing the Turning Stone in 2019.
The Irish singer-songwriter, who mixes folk-rock with blues and soul on hits like “Take Me to Church,” recently released his third album and currently averages 29.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He may not be a household name like Taylor Swift, but his audience continues to grow; his 2024 tour dates include stops at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga Springs, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, and sold-out shows at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City.
Hozier performs onstage during An Evening with Hozier at GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on October 30, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
By comparison, Wilson will be performing in the Syracuse area for the fourth time in less than two years. She opened for Morgan Wallen at the Amp in 2022, and played Keg’s Canalside in Jordan and the NYS Fair this year. She’s popular among country fans with hits like “Watermelon Moonshine,” “Heart Like a Truck” and “Things a Man Oughta Know,” but isn’t well-known outside of the genre, averaging just 7.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
That doesn’t mean Wilson’s concert won’t be packed. She’s a fantastic live performer, so you’ll want to plan on getting tickets before it’s too late — including via Live Nation and resellers like VividSeats, StubHub, Megaseats, TicketNetwork or SeatGeek.
Hozier fans may have less options to buy tickets, as he is using Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange for anyone who wants to sell their tickets at the same price they paid. That keeps prices from getting ridiculously high like Ticketmaster’s “Verified Resellers” program and third-party sites, which allow fans (and scalpers) to sell tickets for more than they paid in an attempt to turn a profit. (For example, some Verified Resellers are attempting to sell front-row Lainey Wilson tickets for as much as $1,178 each — almost 200 times the cost to see her three months ago for free with NYS Fair admission.)
“Hozier wants to give fans the best chance to buy tickets at face value. To make this possible, the artist requests that if you purchase tickets through Ticketmaster and can’t attend, you resell your ticket on Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange to other fans at the original price paid,” the ticketing site says. “Please note, a valid U.S. bank account or debit card is required to sell tickets for this show on the Face Value Exchange.”
Fans can expect more concerts to be announced at the Empower FCU Amphitheater in the coming weeks. Recently renamed from the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview (a.k.a. St. Joe’s Amp and Lakeview Amphitheater), the venue featured 22 shows this past summer.
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2024 Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview concert schedule
May 21 – Hozier
May 22 – Judas Priest
June 21 – Lainey Wilson
July 18 – Jordan Davis
Aug. 15 – ZZ Top & Lynyrd Skynyrd
Sept. 6 – Hootie & The Blowfish with Collective Soul, Edwin McCain