Maroon 5 turned a stretch of beach in Narragansett into a birthday party for Joseph Healey, playing a free concert outside his beachfront home as thousands packed the sand to watch. Some fans arrived as early as 8 am to claim a spot for the show, which marked Healey's sixtieth birthday.
The performance made this the third time Healey has celebrated a milestone birthday by bringing in a headline act for a free beach concert. He had done it before in 2006, when Sting played for his 40th birthday, and again in 2016, when Lenny Kravitz performed for his 50th.
That mix of public access and private property helped define the scene. The concert was free to anyone who could get to the beach, but it unfolded outside a private home and drew plenty of security as parking lots filled and the sand tightened fast.
Healey's birthday parties have become a rare kind of local spectacle: open to the crowd, anchored to one house, and built around a name act. With Maroon 5 now added to the list, the remaining question is not whether the formula works. It is whether Healey will keep the streak going when the next milestone arrives, after joking from the crowd about his 70th.
