See Empire of the Sun live in New York at the open-air Forest Hills Stadium on August 29, 2026. Expect synth-pop, electronic textures, major hits and music from the "Ask That God" era, with Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation also on the bill. Plan your ticket purchase and arrival in advance
Empire of the Sun at Forest Hills Stadium: a guide to the New York concert
Empire of the Sun is coming to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Saturday, August 29, 2026, as part of the "Ask That God: Afterlife" tour. Doors open at 5:00 PM, and the program is scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM. Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation are also on the bill, while the individual set times for their performances have not been published on the event page. The concert is listed as an all-ages event.
This is an evening that brings together several periods of Empire of the Sun's career. Audiences who have followed the band since the album "Walking on a Dream" can expect the current live identity to remain rooted in the songs that made them globally recognizable, but the tour is not conceived merely as a retrospective. The name "Ask That God: Afterlife" is directly connected to their more recent album phase and the production developed after their return with the album "Ask That God".
It is worth securing tickets in good time, especially for visitors traveling to New York who need to coordinate transportation, accommodation and arrival at the stadium.
Why this tour matters in the band's current phase
Empire of the Sun consists of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore, an Australian songwriting duo who from the beginning have combined synth-pop, electronic music, melodramatic pop choruses and a highly stylized visual identity. Their debut album "Walking on a Dream" from 2008 laid the foundation for a sound that could work both in alternative pop and on the dance floor. The songs "Walking on a Dream" and "We Are the People" have remained among their most recognizable titles, while later albums brought tracks such as "Alive" and "High and Low".
After eight years without a new studio album, Empire of the Sun released "Ask That God" on July 26, 2024. The album featured the songs "Changes", "Cherry Blossom", "Music on the Radio", "The Feeling You Get", "Television", "Revolve" and the title track "Ask That God". In January 2025, a deluxe version arrived with the additional songs "Dark Secrets" and "Somebody's Son", with Lindsey Buckingham appearing as a guest on the latter.
For the concert in Queens, it is precisely this combination of old and new that matters. The "Ask That God: Afterlife" tour continues the world of the album "Ask That God", but recent performances show that the band is not removing from the program the songs audiences associate with earlier phases of their career. That is why the concert makes sense both for a listener who knows only a few of the biggest hits and for a fan who follows the newer releases.
What recent performances say about the possible setlist
The exact setlist for Forest Hills Stadium has not been published and should not be considered known in advance. Nevertheless, recent performances during 2026 provide a useful framework for understanding the direction of the tour. At concerts in Europe and North America, songs from several periods have regularly appeared, including "Walking on a Dream", "We Are the People", "Alive", "Half Mast", "High and Low", "Cherry Blossom", "Television" and "Music on the Radio".
At the performance in Cincinnati on August 23, 2026, the songs performed also included "Changes", "Old Flavours", "Revolve", "Two Vines", "Celebrate", "I'll Be Around" and "Tiger by My Side". Earlier European performances often also included the title track "Ask That God". This is no guarantee that the same selection will be repeated in New York, but it shows that the current live repertoire is not divided into "old hits" and the "new album" as two separate sections. The band mixes them into the same concert arc.
How Empire of the Sun works live
Empire of the Sun has never been an act whose live identity is limited solely to reproducing studio arrangements. The visual world, costumes, stage design and theatricality have been part of the project for almost as long as the songs themselves. In interviews from 2026, Luke Steele and media outlets covering the tour emphasize precisely the ambition to treat the performance as a form of storytelling rather than merely a sequence of songs.
Announcements for the "Ask That God: Afterlife" tour describe it as a continuation of the visual world of the previous "Ask That God" phase, with new visual elements and an expanded concept. This is useful information for setting expectations, but it is not a reason to invent specific effects or scenes for Forest Hills Stadium. What can be said is that Empire of the Sun continues to build its concerts around a highly recognizable combination of electronic pulse, big pop choruses and a pronounced stage image.
For audiences who enjoy dance-oriented electronic music, the concert could also be interesting because of the entire evening's program. French duo Polo & Pan operates in the field of electronic music and house, while Midnight Generation from Mexico combines disco, funk, pop and electronic music. Their participation is confirmed for the Forest Hills Stadium date, but the exact minutes when they will take the stage have not been announced, so it is sensible to arrive before the advertised start of the program.
Forest Hills Stadium as part of the concert experience
Forest Hills Stadium is not a conventional indoor arena. It is a historic open-air stadium in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, a venue originally built for tennis in the 1920s and whose concert history developed strongly from the 1960s onward. Its current capacity is around 13,000 visitors.
The venue itself states that the stadium was designed with an emphasis on acoustics and that there are no obstructed views. The horseshoe-shaped stands and open sky create a different feeling from large indoor arenas. The capacity is large enough for a mass concert, but limited enough for the audience and stage to remain within a relatively compact space. For an act whose performance is highly visual, this is an important characteristic: the view toward the stage and the overall image of the production are just as important as the volume itself.
Tickets for this event are currently on sale.
Key information before arrival
- Venue: Forest Hills Stadium, 1 Tennis Place, Forest Hills, Queens, New York.
- The event entrance is located on Burns Street, near 69th Avenue.
- Doors open at 5:00 PM, and the program begins at 6:30 PM.
- The lineup includes Empire of the Sun, Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation.
- The event is listed as suitable for all ages.
- There is no parking at the stadium, and parking is also unavailable on the surrounding residential streets.
- The largest permitted bag is 16 x 16 x 8 inches; hard coolers, briefcases and similar hard containers are not allowed.
- Cameras with interchangeable lenses are not permitted, while small compact cameras are generally allowed, subject to the possibility of stricter rules for an individual event.
Entry rules may change or become stricter for an individual concert, so it is useful to check the stadium's website once again before leaving. It is particularly important not to rely on a car as the main way of getting there. The venue operator explicitly recommends public transportation.
How to get there by public transportation
Forest Hills Stadium is well connected with the rest of New York. The simplest options are the Long Island Rail Road to Forest Hills station or the subway to 71st-Forest Hills station. The stadium specifically recommends these two options and warns that there is no parking at the venue.
Passengers using the LIRR should pay attention to the stadium's instruction to board one of the first four cars of the train in order to exit at Forest Hills station. For visitors for whom accessibility is important, the stadium states that the Forest Hills LIRR station has a ramp but no elevator, while the MTA 71st-Forest Hills station has an elevator. The elevator's operating status should nevertheless be checked on the day of the event.
For taxis and rideshares, the stadium recommends the area around 71-Continental Avenue and Queens Boulevard, because the streets immediately surrounding the stadium are closed on concert days. This is particularly important after the performance ends, when a large number of people leave at the same time toward the same residential neighborhood.
Who will find this concert especially appealing
Longtime fans get an opportunity to hear a catalog stretching from "Walking on a Dream" to the current "Ask That God" phase. For audiences who discovered Empire of the Sun later, the 2026 setlists show that the band does not assume detailed knowledge of the entire discography: the most recognizable songs remain an important part of the concert structure.
The concert is also appealing to listeners who enjoy synth-pop, electro-pop, indie electronic music and dance-oriented production with big melodies. Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation additionally shift the entire evening toward the dance spectrum, giving the program a clearer electronic identity than a concert with completely genre-unrelated support acts would have.
New York's place within the tour
The Forest Hills date falls within a very tightly packed part of the North American schedule. Empire of the Sun performs on August 28 in Mansfield, Massachusetts, then on August 29 at Forest Hills Stadium, and on August 30 at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh. A few days later, a performance in Holmdel, New Jersey, follows as well.
This means that the concert in Queens is not the only opportunity in the wider New York region, but it is particularly positioned within a weekend of consecutive performances in the northeastern United States. For visitors coming to New York specifically because of the concert, Forest Hills also offers a practical advantage: the stadium is located within the city and is connected by urban and commuter rail systems, without the need for a long trip out toward more distant amphitheaters.
What to check on the day of the concert
The most important thing is to distinguish confirmed information from what may change. The date, venue, door opening time, program start time and performers on the bill are confirmed. Separate set times for Polo & Pan, Midnight Generation and Empire of the Sun have not been published, nor has the final setlist for Forest Hills Stadium been announced.
Because this is an open-air venue, visitors who are traveling should check the weather conditions and any stadium notices on the day of the concert. The current bag and transportation rules should also be checked, especially if arrival with larger luggage is planned or if an accessible route is required.
To enter without rushing, it makes sense to arrive early enough so that the security check does not take away from the beginning of the program. An additional reason to arrive earlier is that Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation are an integral part of the announced lineup, rather than merely unspecified local support. A visitor who wants the entire evening, rather than only the main performance, should plan arrival around the door opening and program start times, not around an assumed time when Empire of the Sun will take the stage.
In that sense, Forest Hills Stadium is well suited to the band's current phase: a historic open-air venue, a capacity of around 13,000 people and a concert that combines a catalog almost two decades old with the newer "Ask That God" aesthetic. It is best to arrive expecting a broad cross-section of the career and a strongly shaped visual performance, but without assuming that the song order or production details will be the same as on previous dates of the tour.
Sources:
Forest Hills Stadium - event page for the Empire of the Sun date; used for the door opening time, program start time, lineup and all-ages designation.
Forest Hills Stadium - About, FAQ and Get Here; used for capacity, venue history, bag and camera rules, address, entrance, parking information, public transportation and accessibility.
Empire of the Sun - artist page; used for context on the current "Ask That God" phase.
Apple Music - "Ask That God" and "Ask That God (Deluxe)"; used for release dates, number of tracks and information about additional songs on the deluxe version.
Setlist.fm - 2026 performance statistics and setlists from London, Riverside and Cincinnati; used for examples of recently performed songs, without presenting those setlists as the confirmed repertoire for New York.
JamBase - announcement of the "Ask That God: Afterlife" tour; used for context on the North American tour, visual concept and confirmed supporting acts.
Universal Music France and Spotify - used for genre context for Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation.
Buzz Magazine - interview with Luke Steele from 2026; used for context on the theatrical and storytelling-oriented approach to live performances.