New York City Parks Transformed with SummerStage

Disclosure: We received tickets to a Central Park SummerStage production to facilitate our post. All opinions are our own.

I love New York City in the summer as it teems with fun, free and/or inexpensive things to do. Planning ahead when visiting our city as a tourist proves very rewarding in so many ways, like discovering why New Yorkers (like me!) love taking advantage of certain amazing summer mainstays.

City Parks Foundation brings SummerStage to NYC, the city’s largest free performing arts festival. This year, SummerStage included 115 performances at parks across the five boroughs, many of which take place in Central Park.

With performances ranging from American pop, Yiddish Soul, and Taiwanese music – to dance, comedy and theater, SummerStage features more than 200 unique artists, filling a vital niche in New York City’s summer arts landscape, ensuring that New Yorkers (and its visitors) enjoy access to exceptional cultural experiences, free of charge. Since its inception 31 years ago, SummerStage has benefited more than six million people from New York City and around the world.

In addition to these free events, they put on concerts offered through partners such as Live Nation offered at very reasonable prices. We had the opportunity to attend The Go-Gos’ Farewell Tour in Central Park. We thoroughly enjoyed dancing in the grass as Belinda Carlisle and crew sang hit songs including ‘Our Lips are Sealed’ and ‘Vacation’. NYC favorites including Blue Marble Ice Cream offer concessions available to fans, who can opt to sit in the grass on a blanket, cheer along from the back bleachers, or of course, make our way to the front of the crowd near the stage and dance! This show proved super-fun for all ages, with families, millennials, and and those who have been fans of The Go-Gos for 38 years having fun in attendance.

City Parks Foundation, the only independent, nonprofit organization to offer programs in public parks throughout the five boroughs of New York City, dedicates itself to invigorating and transforming parks into dynamic, vibrant centers of urban life through sports, arts, community development, and education programs for all New Yorkers. Programs and community building initiatives — located in more than 300 parks, recreation centers, and public schools across the city — reach 425,000 people each year. Their ethos is simple: they believe thriving parks reflect thriving communities.

For the most up-to-date scheduling and line-up for all SummerStage programming, visit www.SummerStage.org for festival information. This season’s performances run through September 23, 2016!

Featured image credit: gpointstudio/Thinkstock

Lorianne Lacey