Beginning next month, DC-area concertgoers will be able to enter Nationals Park via the left-field gate on South Capitol Street, make their way to the plaza that overlooks center field, and experience some live music with a spectacular backdrop. Plaza Stage is the name of the new outdoor venue that will appear, Brigadoon-like, on certain days when the Nats aren’t playing. “It’s important to note that this is the one and only outdoor venue in DC,” says Daniel Brindley, whose company Union Stage Presents will manage Plaza Stage. “There’s nothing else.”Â
The new venue, says Jonathan Stahl, the team’s vice president of Nationals Park events, was an answer to the question, “How do we activate Nationals Park year-round and make it an entertainment pillar of the city for all the community to enjoy?” Nationals Park hosts a raft of concerts throughout the year, but they’re different affairs—full-park concerts like the Lumineers and Billy Joel and Sting planned for this summer, or the post-game concerts featuring acts including O.A.R. and Nelly.Â
Those events will take place on the park’s field, but with Plaza Stage, “We’re kind of flipping the mindset of the plaza around,” Stahl says. The artists will play facing the field, and the audience will face Half Street as they take in shows. The pop-up venue will have a capacity of 4,000 people, about two thirds of the Anthem’s capacity and a very good size for artists like Michael Franti and Spearhead, who will play Plaza Stage in July. Â
Some of park’s vendors will open for Plaza Stage shows, Stahl says, and while hot dogs and chicken tenders will certainly be available, the focus will be on local vendors who have stands at the stadium, even if that means setting up portable stands near centerfield plaza. “We really want to bring that local flair into this venue,” Stahl says.
Besides its eponymous venue, Union Stage Presents owns or is the exclusive promoter for Jammin Java, Pearl Street Warehouse, the Howard Theatre, the Theatre at Capital Turnaround, and the Miracle Theatre. Brindley and his brothers Luke and Jonathan pride themselves on delivering a top-notch fan experience, and they’ll have the “best sound we could find” for the temporary stage, he says. “It’s going to feel kind of like those after-hours events at museums where you’re like, ‘Am I supposed to be here?’ It’s weird and different.”Â
In a way, booking Nationals Park when it’s otherwise dark hearkens back to the brothers’ early days at Jammin Java, he says, when they strove to keep the club hopping: “daytime stuff, morning stuff, two shows in a night,” as he puts it. Tickets will be reasonably priced, he pledges, with prices that will range from around $30 to the $100 neighborhood for VIP experiences. “This isn’t someplace that gouges people,” Brindley says. Shows will take place rain or shine, just like ballgames.Â
This year there will probably be seven shows. So far three are officially on the calendar: The “Adobo Day Party” on May 3, which will feature DJ sets by Pedro Night, Franti’s show on July 17, and Cooper Alan, who the Nationals announced Thursday will play on September 11. He’s hoping that booking agents will be excited to send artists to DC, even though the schedule is a lot less elastic than at most clubs—”this is a very busy ballpark,” he notes—and that word will spread to fans. “People are going to see photos,” he says. “They’re going to see Instagram posts. They’re going to want to be a part of it.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
