Three evenings a week, from early July into the middle of August, the lawn at John J. Burns Town Park turns into something closer to a small amphitheater than a neighborhood ballfield. The Town of Oyster Bay's free "Music Under the Stars" series stops in several parks across the town each summer, but the schedule leans heavily on Burns, and this year the concentration is even harder to ignore. If you live in Massapequa, the busiest live-music venue within a ten-minute drive of your kitchen is a town park you probably use for soccer practice.
That is the piece most residents miss. The series is not a handful of scattered dates. It is a rotation of tribute bands, tenors, and a Billy Joel sideman playing your local park on a schedule tight enough that you could, in theory, walk over most Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays in July and hear a different act each time. The lineup below is worth pinning to the fridge.
The Massapequa dates worth circling
Burns Park anchors the Oyster Bay side of the 2026 series. A handful of nights stand out for scale, fireworks, or acts that have graduated well beyond the tribute circuit:
- Tuesday, July 7, 7:30 p.m. New York Bee Gees & Fireworks at John J. Burns Town Park in Massapequa. Earlier start than the rest of the series, because the fireworks run after the set.
- Wednesday, July 8. Any Way You Want It (Journey Tribute) at John J. Burns Town Park in Massapequa.
- Tuesday, July 14. Mike DelGuidice at John J. Burns Town Park in Massapequa. DelGuidice fronts Big Shot and tours with Billy Joel's band, which is the kind of pedigree that would command a ticket price almost anywhere else on Long Island.
- Half Step (Grateful Dead Tribute) rounds out the Burns Park stretch during the same July run, per the Long Island Press 2026 guide.
- Saturday, August 15. Yellow Brick Joel at John J. Burns Town Park in Massapequa. Elton John and Billy Joel material, closing out the Massapequa portion of the summer.
Four Massapequa nights in a six-week window, all free, all within the same park boundary. That is a density you would normally have to drive to Jones Beach or Westbury for.
What "arrive early" actually means here
The catch is that everyone in Massapequa knows the park is quiet on a Tuesday, right up until the moment it isn't. The Town's ground rules for the series are simple and worth internalizing before you show up at 7:45 with a folding chair and a plan:
Oyster Bay Town hosts a free slate of Music Under the Stars on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays this summer at various town park locations. Concerts begin at 8pm and there is no seating before 4pm. Food trucks will be on site. Events will be held outdoors, weather permitting.
The 4 p.m. rule is the one to remember. It exists to keep anyone from staking out the front lawn at sunrise, but the practical effect is that the good sightlines start filling in during the late afternoon and are gone well before dinner. Locals who take the series seriously treat it like tailgating: kids in the playground area, one adult holding the blanket, dinner from whichever truck has the shortest line. For comfort, residents may bring blankets, chairs and coolers. Performances are subject to change and will be held weather permitting.
Coolers are allowed, which is worth flagging because plenty of outdoor venues on the Island have moved away from that in recent years. You do not need to buy a fifteen-dollar water at the fence line.
The Burns Park concentration is not an accident
If you look at the full 2026 town schedule, the series rotates through Ellsworth W. Allen in Farmingdale, Syosset-Woodbury Community Park, Tappen Beach in Glenwood Landing, and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park in Oyster Bay. Burns still gets the largest share of the marquee acts and the fireworks night. That reflects two things a Massapequa resident already suspects: the park has the footprint to hold a real crowd, and the south-shore population base is large enough that programming here draws better than anywhere else in the town system.
For daily use, that means the summer calendar at Burns is denser than at any of the sister parks. You can plan a low-effort weeknight around it the way you would plan around a restaurant reservation, except the reservation is a blanket you put down at 5:30 on your way home from work.
A quick primer if you have never gone
A few practical notes that the Town's press release does not spell out but that anyone who has done this a few times will tell you:
- Parking. The Burns Park lots fill from the concert side first. If you get there after 7, use the fields on the far side and walk across. Do not circle the closest lot at 7:45. You will lose the pre-show entirely.
- Food trucks vs. picnic. Both work. The trucks rotate, and lines get long around 7:30 when families finish setting up. If you want to eat sitting down before the first song, eat by 7.
- Chairs vs. blankets. Low chairs are fine and common. Standard-height camp chairs in the front third block sightlines and will earn you a polite request to move back. Blankets are the friendlier default up close.
- Kids. The crowd skews family before dark and skews a little older once the headliner starts. Bring bug spray. The Massapequa Preserve is right there, and the mosquitoes know.
- Weather. The Town posts cancellations to the oysterbaytown.com summer page and its Facebook feed, and the general information line is (516) 797-7925. Check before you pack the car if the sky looks unsettled.
The night that draws the biggest crowd
If you only go to one show this summer, the July 7 New York Bee Gees date is the safe pick. It is the fireworks night, which means the park will feel more like a community festival than a concert, and the earlier 7:30 start makes it workable with younger kids. The Grucci-style town fireworks that follow the salute-to-America programming have been a fixture of the series in past years, and the fireworks night has historically been the one that pulls neighbors who otherwise never come.
The counter-programming pick is July 14. DelGuidice's set draws a specific kind of Long Island audience: people who have seen Billy Joel at the Garden a dozen times and want to hear the catalog performed by someone who actually plays it with him. It is closer to a proper concert than a tribute night, and Burns is a strange, wonderful place to hear it for free.
Beyond the concerts
The summer series is the loudest thing happening at Burns, but it is not the only thing. The Town's Movies By Moonlight series runs on additional summer evenings at parks across Oyster Bay with pre-movie inflatables and on-stage entertainment, and Marjorie R. Post Community Park a few minutes north hosts the Family Fall & Halloween Festival on October 24 with a u-pick pumpkin patch and hayrides. Burns's own draw is that it stitches these programs into a full-summer rhythm. There is almost always a reason to walk over on a warm night.
For a household that has lived in Massapequa for a while, the useful reframe is this: the park is not just where your kids play rec-league soccer. From early July through mid-August, it is the busiest live-music venue in your zip code, and it is free. The residents who get the most out of it are the ones who plan a few evenings around it the same way they would plan a Friday-night dinner reservation.
Print the list. Pack a cooler. Get there by 5:30 on a fireworks night and by 6:30 for the rest. You live here. Use it.
If you are new to the area and still learning the rhythms of Massapequa, or you have been here for years and are starting to think about your next move within the neighborhood, Christine Biordi is happy to talk through the local calendar and the local market with the same attention. Get a Free Home Valuation whenever you are ready.
