Celebrate Brooklyn!

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Celebrate Brooklyn! also known as BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! is New York City's longest-running, free, outdoor performing arts festival held at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park. In its forty-five seasons, the festival has presented over 2,000 artists and ensembles reflective of the borough's diversity, ranging from internationally acclaimed performers to emerging, cutting-edge artists. The festival attracts upwards of 250,000 attendees each summer. Launched in 1979 by the then Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn, the festival was catalyst for Brooklyn's performing arts scene and brought people back into park after years of neglect. Celebrate Brooklyn! was an anchor in the park's revitalization and has become one of the borough's foremost summer cultural attractions. The festival is produced by BRIC Arts Media, an organization that presents contemporary art, performing arts, and media programs throughout Brooklyn.

Contents

A Celebrate Brooklyn! performance at the Lena Horne Bandshell in July 2022 Celebrate brooklyn.jpg
A Celebrate Brooklyn! performance at the Lena Horne Bandshell in July 2022

Format

Unlike multi-stage outdoor festivals, Celebrate Brooklyn! is a summer-long experience. The performances are free to the public except for ticketed benefit concerts that occur approximately three to four times each summer. [1] Audience members sit and stand on the grass, or seated on the plaza. Members of Celebrate Brooklyn! get express entry to the venue, reserved seating in two tents at the side of the stage, pre-concert receptions and more [2] . Food and beverage is served at each show. Past food sponsors have included Smorgasburg.

Programming

Celebrate Brooklyn's music programming features established and emerging artists in a large and adventurous array of styles and genres ranging from regional American roots music, extremely varied world-music, classical and new music, jazz, pop and alt-rock, and hip-hop. Performers who have appeared at Celebrate Brooklyn! include: Bob Dylan, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group, Norah Jones, David Byrne, The National, Phoebe Bridgers, and Prince.

Mission

Since its creation, Celebrate Brooklyn! has to being bring the borough together. “For 45 years our team has brought free and affordable programming to Prospect Park, and low-cost media education to the people of Brooklyn. We’re honored to serve our neighborhoods in this way every summer” said BRIC president Wes Jackson ahead of the 2023 season. [3]

Sponsors

Celebrate Brooklyn relies on audience donations, members, sponsors and partners to keep performances free. Celebrate Brooklyn is presented in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks. Other season sponsors have included: Bud Light, Mezcal Artesanal 400 Conejos, Ticketmaster, and Bloomberg. Celebrate Brooklyn! media partners include ABC 7, 90.7 WFUV and WBGO.

History

Prospect Park was designed in 1865 by architect Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, and was envisioned to be the centerpiece of Brooklyn's cultural institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Public Library. The bandshell was added in 1939 to serve as a site for live entertainment in the park.

The Bandshell features acoustic shell with a raised stage, and a circular plaza. In the 1950s, it was the site of popular concerts and dances. The Bandshell suffered in late sixties and early seventies, as a result of budget cuts and the broader movement of urban neglect. The park deteriorated and the Bandshell was perceived as unsafe. Celebrate Brooklyn! and the "New Prospect Park" (as it was then called), was founded in 1979, to reverse this trend by bringing people back to the Park through a series of exciting, accessible performances--many of which were held at night--a radical idea at the time. The first few seasons were filled with many of the Brooklyn's world famous jazz performers and New York City's emerging choreographers and presented on an expanded stage that featured some of the elements to be incorporated in the coming renovation of the Bandshell. In 1983 a newly renovated Bandshell was introduced, allowing more adventurous programming and productions. Celebrate Brooklyn! grew rapidly during this time from 24 performances in 1982 to 44 performances in 1985.

After devastating funding cuts in the early 1990's, Celebrate Brooklyn! was scaled back to as few as 16 performances in 1992. A new team was brought in to revive the program, and new focus was placed on pairing international artists with local talent. World music, America roots music, film, theater and spoken word programs were introduced and the number of performances increased again to 32 in 1995.

The renewed popularity of the program and problems associated with the large lighting and sound towers encouraged a plan for a second redesign and the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President funded a $3 million reconstruction which took place in 1998-99. Designed and managed by the Prospect Park Alliance, this project dismantled the three inappropriate towers which were responsible for sound bouncing back into the neighborhood; renovated the backstage areas; expanded public restrooms; re-graded the site for better viewing and drainage; added a new stage roof that facilitates rigging, lighting and projection for film and dance programs, and allows performances to go forward in inclement weather; and added a new "distributed" sound system which provide excellent sound quality while tightly directing the sound at the audience and away from other areas.

Accessibility

The Bandshell is located at Prospect Park West and has entrances at 9th and 11th Street. It is directly accessible by the F, G, 2, 3, B, Q and S subway lines, and others with transfer. To arrive to the Bandshell by bus, the B61, B69, B67, B16, B43, B48 and B68. Participants are encouraged to arrive by bike.

Past Season Lineups

* = ticketed Benefit Concert

2023
DatePerformer
June 7Opening Night:Taj Mahal, Corinne Bailey Rae and The Harlem Gospel Travelers
June 10Family Day: Soul Science Lab, Olivia K and The Parkers
June 12Rescheduled: Taj Mahal, Corinne Bailey Rae and The Harlem Gospel Travelers
June 15 Jake Wesley Rogers, Kara Jackson, Bright Light Bright LIght
June 23 Antonio Sanchez: Birdman Live, Takyua Kuroda
June 24 NxWorries (Anderson.Paak & Knxwledge), Robert Glasper with Lalah Hathaway & Bilal, BJ the Chicago Kid*
June 25BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! at Highland Park*
July 1Ibrahim Maalouf, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Little Moon
July 8Kelela, Liv.e
July 13Rennie Harris, decora
July 14Oumou Sangaré, Vox Sambou
July 14 Marcia Griffiths, Brown Rice Family, Dj Miss Hap Selam
July 19 Dominic Fike*
July 21 The Chelsea Symphony feat. Lady Jess, Lucrecia Dalt
July 22 Ali Sethi, Raka Kumair, Roshni Samalal
July 27 The Wallflowers, treya lam
July 29 Rickie Lee Jones, Thornetta Davis, Chris Pierce
August 3 Jorge Drexler, Cimafunk, Julieta Rada
August 4 Indigo De Souza, Vundabar
August 10 The Revivalists and Band of Horses with The Heavy Heavy
August 18 iLe, Divino Niño, Sara Curruchich
August 19 John Cale, Tomberlin
August 22 Alex G and Alvvays with Tanukichan
August 24Closing Night: The Head and The Heart, Izzy Heltai

1979-2022 summer lineups are available here.

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References

  1. "About Celebrate Brooklyn!". BRIC. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  2. "About Celebrate Brooklyn!". BRIC. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  3. "BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! 2023 Guide". Time Out New York. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2024-03-16.