Taylor Swift tribute band to kick off Venue 1012’s season Thursday in Oswego

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.

Gates open at 5 p.m. Fearless will perform from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and Beyond the Blonde will perform from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

“We’re crossing our fingers that we’ll have the same attendance that we had last year,” Oswego events manager Julie Hoffman said. “We hope that it’s a beautiful night and there will be beautiful weather.”

Each concerts Venue 1012 this summer will have two bands perform. The season will run through Sept. 6.

“We’re now doubling the fun,” 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.”

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 Seattle 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.

Although ticket sales have been slow, Hoffman hopes there will be a lot of walk-up traffic.

“We’re doing our best to get the word out,” she said. “We have a fabulous lineup. We know people like tribute acts. They like hearing music that they love. 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.

This season, cash will not be accepted. Credit/debit cards and electronic payments are accepted.

“It makes things much more efficient,” Hoffman said.

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