Summer 2026 tour
WRITTEN BY ERIN KNOX
PHOTOGRAPHED BY ERIN KNOX
Forest Hills Stadium
QUEENS , NEW YORK
July 17th 20266
DJO
★
DJO ★
Whether you know the name from his hit song “End of Beginning” or you’ve seen him star on the smash Netflix show “Stranger Things”, Joe Keery stars as the frontman of DJO. Bringing their summer 2026 tour to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York this past July–including special guests and surprise cameos, it surely was a show that left everyone talking for days.
Upon entering the venue, it was a surprising mix of younger and older adults all there for the same reason, to enjoy the music in a beautiful outdoor venue. The merchandise table line wrapped around the arena for what felt like a mile, but the exclusive Forest Hills stadium shirt was secured, fret not! There was also a special poster featured for this show and a very hot in demand item that had debuted the show before, a $5 scrunchie that has been on my wrist since the moment I got it.
After we gathered our merch and hot dogs, we made our way into the pit where we were met with two members of Keery’s former band “Post Animal” who just so happened to be the surprise guests for the encore of “Flash Mountain”. We exchanged pleasantries and friendship bracelets with them, then were back on our way. In addition to the screams that erupted from the crowd when Keery said “Ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage Post Animal”, the venue almost shattered during “Charlie’s Garden” when a surprise cameo was featured on the big screen from NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. In fact, the screams were so loud that it took several days of watching other people’s videos on social media to find a perspective where you could actually hear what Mamdani was saying on the song’s “voicemail” and even then, it was still extremely difficult to decipher.
The energy from most of the crowd was phenomenal. Fans got very creative with DIY outfits, themed shirts, and enough friendship bracelets to start a Michael’s. A very popular theme noticed amongst a lot of the crowd’s outfits was the classic “I <3 NY” logo but instead read as “I <3 DJO” and it was especially fun to see how even when similar ideas were shared, each outfit had their own sense of creativity and personal touch to them. Everywhere you looked, people were exchanging compliments to each other or making friends with total strangers which, to me, is what live music is all about–one big community.
On their previous tour in 2025, DJO played mostly smaller and more intimate venues which I had the pleasure of attending. Seeing the production shift going from venues that fit less than two thousand people, to arenas that hold thirteen thousand people was very cool as a longtime fan. Matter of fact, it was DJO’s biggest headlining solo show to date. However, whether it’s a small bar sized venue, or a huge arena with 3 levels of seating, DJO knows how to make every show feel intimate and personal while delivering incredible production value.
If you ever get the opportunity to catch DJO while they’re in your city, I can’t recommend it enough. Even if you only know a song or two, you will leave that show wanting more and running home to your favorite streaming service to learn the rest of them.