Summer Festivals in New York

By aliciak
updated 3 months ago

Summer is a brutal time to be stuck in the city, what with the humidity, perpetual smell of garbage and your inability, yet again, to afford that timeshare in the Hamptons. Luckily, it's festival season! New York puts on a good show in terms of summer festivals, and most of the events are either free or very cheap. As long as it's not 90 degrees, the outside factor is a good thing, and it beats your apartment and its temperamental air conditioner.

Tips for Attending Summer Festivals

Bring water! It’s summer, remember? And once you have staked out your spot, you won’t want to get up.
About that spot, come early to almost any summer festival and throw down that picnic blanket, or grab a seat and don’t let go. These things get CROWDED!
Bring something to do. Yeah, your friends are interesting, but when you come 2 hours early for that Ani Difranco concert, you’ll be wishing you brought a magazine. Or do you all have iPhones and, therefore, access to time-killers all the time?
Check each venue/park website for information regarding what you are prohibited to have with you…just like any concert venue.

Central Park

5th Ave & 59th St, Manhattan, NY 10024

Commonly known as “Summer Stage,” Central Park’s festival runs through mid-August , and includes Thievery Corporation, Mark Knopfler, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and The National. The famous bands and singers will cost ya, though, sometimes upwards of $70, so look for those mysterious words, “benefit concert” in the listings.

Prospect Park Bandshell

Prospect Park West and 9th Street Brooklyn, NY 11215

You know how you get all excited that your favorite band ever is coming to Prospect Park? But upon further research, you find out it’s $35 and you’re flat broke? No matter, because in Prospect Park, the amount of space that separates the ticket-holders and the rest of the park-goers is quite small. THAT is the beauty of outdoor summer concerts.

JellyNYC Pool Parties at McCarren Park

Bedford Avenue and Lorimer Street Brooklyn, NY 11211

Noooooooo! Sorry. It’s the last year for this kind of pool party (music, some dancing) because Mikey Bloomberg has decidied to turn McCarren Park Pool back into a…wait for it…swimming pool! The nerve.

The upside is that it’ll probably motivate you to party your heart at weekly in Greenpoint. Need a little something extra to get you on the G train? There’s a two-lane Slip ‘N Slide.

Moondance

W. 14th Street and 11th Avenue New York, NY 10014

Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance….so goes the song. Take a spin on Pier 54 every Sunday night! At 6:30, free dance lessons are open to all, with live bands following at 7. Check out the schedule to see if it’s salsa, tango or swing that day.

Bryant Park Summer Film Festival

40 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

It’s all about the classics this year, like The Candidate and The Man Who Came To Dinner, but you seriously have to get to Bryant Park a good hour or so before the sunset films. I was literally towel-to-towel close to people. Could have found this movie at the library hmm…

Movies with a View at Fulton Ferry Park

1 Main Street Brooklyn, NY 11201

The best part of the Fulton Ferry films is right in the title—the view! You’re seated between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges and can see a partial sunset when clear. It’s the one outdoor movie venue that you don’t mind showing up 2 hours early for.