Rentschler Field Concerts: The Pratt & Whitney Stadium Guide

Updated June 2026 · 5 min read

When a tour is too big for an arena, Connecticut's answer is Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. It's primarily a football stadium — home to UConn Huskies football since it opened in 2003 — but a handful of times across its history it's been the state's stadium-concert venue, hosting some of the largest single shows Connecticut ever sees.

The name, explained

You'll see it called a few things. The stadium opened in 2003 as Rentschler Field, and since 2015 the building has carried the name Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field — the playing surface keeps the "Rentschler Field" name, while the stadium structure is "Pratt & Whitney Stadium." Most locals still just say "the Rent." It's owned by the State of Connecticut, overseen by the Capital Region Development Authority, and managed by Oak View Group.

How big is it?

For football the stadium seats roughly 40,000. For concerts, where the stage goes at one end and the field fills with seats and standing room, capacity has climbed past 50,000 — Bruce Springsteen's opening-weekend shows in 2003 drew more than 51,000 in a single night. That puts it in a class of its own in Connecticut: no other venue in the state holds anywhere near that many people.

Its concert history

Stadium concerts here are special-event rare rather than a regular series. The headline nights over the years include:

• Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band — the stadium's opening concerts in 2003.
• The Rolling Stones (with Maroon 5) — 2005.
• The Police — on their 2007 reunion tour.
• Chris Brown — 2025.
• Post Malone (with Jelly Roll) — June 2026.

The pattern is clear: this isn't a venue with a monthly calendar — it lights up a few times a year, at most, when a stadium-scale tour routes through New England. When one is announced, it's usually one of the biggest CT concert tickets of the year.

Parking & getting there

One of the stadium's best features is parking: it has roughly 10,600 spaces on-site within the stadium footprint, which is unusual and makes arrivals and exits far smoother than at most big venues. It's at 615 Silver Lane in East Hartford, right off I-84/I-91, with tailgating permitted under the venue's rules. For a stadium show, give yourself extra time — 40,000-plus people still take a while to move, even with all that parking.

The rest of the year

Because Rentschler only hosts the occasional mega-show, most Hartford-area concertgoing happens elsewhere. For the indoor arena acts, see our guide to PeoplesBank Arena (the XL Center), and for the capital region's full scene — theaters, halls, and clubs — read live music in Hartford. Rentschler also appears in our roundup of the biggest concert venues in Connecticut.

When the next stadium tour is announced, it'll be in the CT Concert Center app — along with every other concert happening across the state.