Beach concerts are finally coming back to Atlantic City
Thanks to a Visit AC and Live Nation deal, music fans will no longer have to travel to Asbury Park and Wildwood to experience a surf-side musical blowout.
Once again, there will be music on the beach in Atlantic City this summer.
Australian electronic dance music trio Rüfüs Du Sol will perform on the ocean side of the A.C. boardwalk on Aug. 29 in what’s expected to be the first in a wave of shows to take place this year.
That show by the Sydney-based pop/house music band, which is also playing Bonnaroo, Wrigley Field, and Madison Square Garden, will mark a return to the tradition of A.C. beach shows. The stage on the Arkansas Avenue beach will face north, with the Caesar’s Pier (formerly the Million Dollar Pier) behind it.
Over the years, beach concerts have included Pink in 2017, the Vans Warped Tour in 2019, three-nights of Phish in 2021 and 2022, the pop-punk Adjacent Music Festival in 2023, and the TidalWave country fest in 2022 and 2023.
For the last two years, however, there have been no large scale A.C. beach shows (though Philly impresario Dave P. did stage an intimate Making Waves festival last year).
Music fans had to travel north to Asbury Park for Sea. Hear. Now or south to Wildwood for the Barefoot Country to experience a surf side musical blowout.
But now Visit Atlantic City, the public-private partnership funded by New Jersey’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, has announced a new Atlantic City collaboration with Live Nation.
“With the help of Live Nation and our partners,” Gary Musich, Visit Atlantic City president and CEO said in a statement, the storied Jersey resort town aims to “attract a wide range of world class performers, energize our tourism economy, and continue delivering experience that resonate with visitors year round.”
That means more shows and not just in the summer, Molly Warren, Live Nation senior vice president of booking said in a statement. The concert promotion company regularly books venues such as Boardwalk Hall, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Borgata Hotel Casino, or, Warren said, “even right on the beach.”
No other 2026 Atlantic City beach concerts have been announced as of yet. Tickets for Rüfüs Du Sol go on sale on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 10 a.m. at RüfüsDuSol.com/live.
In addition to the Rüfüs Du Sol and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s date at Xfinity Mobile Arena on May 8, it’s been a big week for concert announcements.
Rapper J. Cole will bring his “Fall-Off Tour” to Xfinity Mobile Arena on July 20. It’s the Grammy-winning North Carolina producer and artist’s tour for his new album of the same name. It will take him not only across the U.S., but also to Europe and South Africa. Tickets for the Philly show go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. at thefalloff.com.
Three days later, Shinedown, the Jacksonville, Fla., rock band led by singer Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers, will play the Xfinity Mobile Arena on their “Dance Kid Dance: Act II” Tour.
Smith and Myers played a two-man acoustic set at the Pierre Robert tribute concert at the Fillmore in December. The band’s new album Ei8ht is due in May. Tickets go one sale Friday at 10 a.m. More information is at shinedown.com.