Beach Road Weekend tickets are selling quickly

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Updated Jan. 24

The line for presale tickets for this summer’s Beach Road Weekend Music Festival snaked down behind the Post Office and around the side of Cumberland Farms Sunday.

Concert lovers, bundled up against the cold — some with their dogs on leashes and others with baby strollers — awaited their turn to take advantage of early ticket purchase. The 2023 three-day concert is slated for Friday, August 25, through Sunday, August 27, at Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury.

Fifteen hundred people took advantage of Sunday’s presale, Innovation Arts & Entertainment CEO and Beach Road Festival founder Adam Epstein told The Times. Although unwilling to share the number of tickets sold, Epstein did say that all of Sunday’s restricted passes — which were available for $150 to Islanders who spent $50 at one of five local shops, or donated $50 to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services or the Tisbury School Fund — quickly sold out. 

On Sunday, presale tickets at any price were only available to those physically purchasing tickets at the former EduComp building, with all 12,000 tickets up for grabs. Epstein said, “Islanders had access to every seat in the house, they weren’t available online and not available on the mainland.” 

On Monday, festival passes were available for purchase to anyone who bought tickets for last year’s event. On Tuesday, passes became available to those who have signed up via email for the “insider presale.” According to Epstein, that meant 60,000 people were emailed on Tuesday alone. All remaining tickets will be up for purchase to the general public Friday, Jan. 27.

Anticipation for the concert passes has been growing ever since Beach Road Weekend organizers announced the festival’s lineup last week, which is set to include performances by Mumford & Sons, Bon Iver, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr., the Head and the Heart, Japanese Breakfast, Regina Spektor, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Kevin Morby, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Gregory Porter, among others.

Sunday’s lengthy queue consisted of Vineyarders from every corner of the Island — including a few members of the Times staff, who chatted with some Beach Road patrons.

Two sisters from Oak Bluffs, Karen Lodge and Nadine Monaco, waited in line to buy the special Islanders’ tickets, also purchasing a couple for their kids. 

“We’ve been coming every year,” Lodge said. Her sister said she was looking forward to hearing Bon Iver and St. Paul & the Broken Bones. 

“Regina Spektor,” Lodge added, “my son used to dance to her music.”

Tisbury resident Kate Ridenour said she’s excited for this year’s lineup, particularly headliner Leon Bridges. “I’m hoping there are more tickets available by the time we get to the front,” she said. “It’s unclear how many are available.”

In a call with The Times Sunday afternoon, Epstein clarified that although there is no limit on tickets available to Islanders, there is a cap for certain price levels. He did not reveal what those caps are. However, “Islanders have first seats available,” he said.

The event has a capacity for 15,000 entrants, but the number of seats opened would be less than this amount, according to Epstein. He expects the music festival tickets to sell out by the end of this week, and said he was “very, very proud to be able” to give Islanders the first chance to buy tickets. 

“This interest is incredible. It’s a wonderful, beautiful scene,” Epstein said about the serpentine line of people waiting to buy tickets on Sunday. “We’re so happy to be able to steer tickets to Islanders.”

Festival promoters are “committed still and always will be [to] getting tickets in the hands of Islanders before anyone else,” he said. 

As a result of Sunday’s in-person pre-sale, 68 donations totaling $3,675 were received by Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, Barbara Bellissimo, MVCS Director of Development and Communications later told The Times in an email. As of Tuesday afternoon, another $1,300 in donations went to the Friends of the Tisbury School. 

General admission “tier one” ($275) and “tier two” ($325) passes were also sold out by Tuesday.

 

26 COMMENTS

  1. I drove by around 12:30. All that crossed my mind was, there’s no way all those people are islanders. Do they do anything to confirm that those tickets are going to actual islanders? Anybody know if there was any uptick of
    walk-ons this morning? I’m also still waiting for an answer about donating or spending $50. What do people receive by bringing the receipt to the ticket office?

    • My wife along with dozens of people that we know were in line for tickets. Many of the people we know were there getting tickets for themselves and their families. You had to show a receipt from a $50 purchase on a main street business before being able to get the islanders deal. Believe it or not Jim, there are about 17,000+ people living here year round….maybe there were 500 in the line representing just 3% of the islands population. Is it so hard to believe that people on this island enjoy music and might actually want to attend this event? I think maybe Jim you should loosen your collar, buy a ticket, and get out there and dance.

      • So I gotta spend $50 to get a discount? So the islanders deal really isn’t that much of deal now is it?
        And I dance plenty. Both privately and in public. However, I don’t support this fiasco one bit? No worries though, I’ll be gone by then.
        Poor Martha….

    • What is your definition of an Islander?
      Many people consider themselves to be Islanders that haven’t been on Island in February in a decade.
      Who gets to decide who is is an Islander?
      Both of my sons were born on Island and weren’t away for for more than week for there first twenty years.
      Are they Islanders?
      The people who scream the loudest about being Islanders tend to be washashores.
      The washashores tend to be nattering nabobs of negativism.
      More Islander than thou.

    • There were plenty of tickets available. Why would it be neighborly to ask people to prive some birthright or mailing address when there ample quantities to go around.

      Some organizations, like Newport Folk make people donate and join their own Foundation in order to get access to tickets. Rather than that selfish approach, we asked people to give money to other worthwhile causes.

  2. Will not tell in advance, “those caps are were not revealed at this time” said by adam, talk about shadows and mirrors, is adam kidding, hey there hey there line up here for a great deal maybe, but only so many good deals are available. What do they call this type of marketing like this?, the sad thing is Tisbury is part of these machanations oh boy. BOS just wait until your meetings are open to the public again you might hear about your part in this mess.

    • Carlos, you are incorrect. Islanders had access to all of the lowest price tiers before the rest of the world, $150 and $275. $7.50 and $11 per band respectively.

      Not a single person was denied the opportunity to buy a ticket, but yes, the $150 tickets were advertised as “very limited in quantity” and sold out in a little over an hour.

      We walked the line explaining to everyone where we expected to hit the end of the inventory of $150, and explained that we’d have enough inventory of the next price level to satisfy everyone. And as expected, we did.

  3. It’s amazing to watch sheep be abused and then listen to them talk on Islanders Talk about how grateful they are for the privilege. And they had to spend $50 to do it! These are the tactics of a carnival barker. What a bargain.

  4. I was not one of the lucky ones to receive the $150 ticket. Those people started getting in line at 7:30 AM. I did wait in line over two hours to purchase my four tickets and saved $460 in ticket price and Ticket master fee by waiting in line. I am very grateful for Adam setting this up for the Islanders and I’ll wait in line any time for two hours to save $460. And by the way, I did not see anyone in line that was born on the island and I have only been here 30 years. Jim is correct very few Islanders in the line. I wonder if Jim is an islander!

    • If you have only been here for thirty years, how do you know if anyone in that line was born here? Do you claim to know every person on this island?
      I’m certain there are thousands of people here that you have never met, or heard of.

    • There were so many islanders on line. I walked down the entire line. I am not super social, and I had many people to say hello to.

      • Let’s see: I am the trustee of a trust that has owned property on-island for 63 years. In the last 2 months I’ve replaced a back-up generator and a furnace, engaging island-owned and operated businesses to the tune of $35,000. Taxes to the town at $9K. Ferry at $1,000 annually, Our Market at least that.
        But I wasn’t born on the island. I was baptized here 61 years ago. But I don’t qualify. Do I have that right?

  5. Please, MV Times, dial down the boosterism. This is not a PR release, it’s a news story. Lines like “one for the books” don’t belong. Some islanders clearly love this event: others think it’s too big, too loud, too wasteful for our fragile island environment. So repor on it, don’t promote it.

    • Geraldine

      For BRW, only 8000 individuals come from off island to attend along with 4000 others who already have summer residences or accommodations. Unlike AG Faur, no one can drive to brw, and we are close enough that everyone takes the ferry, VTA, or bikes to VH for the festival.

      Even our talent mostly leaves their tour buses on the mainland.

      as a result, this event is 25% the size of AG Fair, with a smaller carbon footprint. As such would you advocate for it and the ob fireworks to be terminated as well?

  6. Hurray! One day in person only ticket sales for Islanders announced a week before it happened.

    This could have easily been done online with a requirement that Island residence be shown at some point to validate the tix.

    I was off island on Sunday and missed out on lining up for 2 hours so I have to pay over $800 for 2 general admission tickets Monday morning.

    I went the past two years – I will not be attending this year.

    Much as I like the idea of BRW, this was the bare minimum of what could be done for tickets for Island residents. The BRW organizers are off to a very bad start.

      • It is 2023.

        There are many ways to do this.

        For an example, look to the Steamship Authority which sells Islander specific tickets online (excursion fare) 365 days a year and runs ‘events’ hourly 6AM to 9PM. They get proof of residence beforehand.

        I think your team could probably figure out one ticket event per year.

    • Define Island resident.
      If I was born here and spend May- Sep on Island, Oct-Dec+ Apr on Manhattan Island and Jan-Mar on St. Barts Island I am certainly an Islander but am I am Island Resident?

  7. It would have been nice if the organizers, who knew how many $150 tickets they had available, came out and counted down the line to give some people an idea as to whether they would be able to obtain a sale ticket. It was not an hour long line. I got on line near Cumbies at 11:00 and got near to about 50 people from the door at 1:30 and was told…NO TICKETS LEFT for that price. I would have counted down and made a much better decision about my Sunday. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER.

    • We had multiple people, including myself walking the line and talking to patrons and explaining that the inventory of $150 was nearing its end and explaining what was available.

      I’m sorry you felt like you wasted your time.

  8. “Cigarette butts and nips were littered about….” – Local Police Officer. This is the type of crowd we want ruining our beloved park?

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