For twenty-six years New York has been host to the Summer Stage arts festival.  It runs from June 7^th to September 2^nd and takes place in all five boroughs.  What is so great about this festival is not only the variety of shows but that most of them are free! They have all genres of music (alternative, rap, world music, Latin, opera), theater, dancing, and even comedy! There are over a hundred performances spread out between the five boroughs—18 different park locations in total. City Parks Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that created this festival to promote art, culture and fun to NYC, provides these events. I took part in the festival and went to see the musical performance of The Script in the Central Park venue, Rumsey Playfield. And it was a great experience. Tickets were $30.00 and we were able to lay a sheet down to sit and eat before the concert started.  The food inside the venue is not just draft beer and plain ol’ hot dogs; they have the option of pizza, Asiadog and wine. For those of you who are not aware of what Asiadog is, they are hot dogs that have an Asian twist of topping on them. I’ve never had something like those hotdogs before in my life: they are delicious. Leave it up to New York to twist the classics and make gold out of them.  My advice when going to any of the performances would be to get there as early as possible! And if you bring along a sheet, you hold your spot in front of the stage and just relax. If you also don’t want to spend money on venue food eat before hand (Maybe a burger from 123 Burger Shot Beer) Listed Below are some events that I thought were note-worthy but if you go to Summer Stage’s website you can get the entire listing of dates and events.

Shows in Manhattan:

Lee Fields & the Expressions (music), June 25^th 4:00 pm, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, Cost-Free

“Comedy Central Park” starring Jim Gaffigan (Comedy), June 29^th 8:00 pm, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, Cost-Free

The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (Opera), July 11^th 8:00 pm, Rumsey PlayField, Central Park, Cost-Free

Ratatat (Music), July 13^th 6:30 pm, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, Cost- $30 in advanced/ $40 the day of the show

Amitage Gone! Dance (Dance), July 15^th 8:00 pm, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, Cost-Free

Henry V by William Shakespeare (Theatre), Preformed by The Classical Theatre of Harlem, August 5^th 8:00 pm, Marcus Garvey Park, Cost- Free

Shows in Queens:

“A Salute to Hip-Hop” Feat. N.O.R.E and Funkmaster Flex (Music), July 21^st 7:00 pm, Queensbridge Park, Cost-Free

Hezekiah Walker (Music), July 27^th 7:00pm, SpringField Park, Cost-Free

Kool Moe Dee (Music), July 19^th 7:00 pm, Queensbridge Park, Cost-Free

Shows in Brooklyn:

Talib Kweli (Music), June 21^st 7:00 pm, Red Hook Park, Cost-Free

We Are Scientists/ Milagres (Music), June 23^rd 7:00 PM, Red Hook Park, Cost-Free

Dance Grand Moultrie (Dance), June 25^th 7:00 PM, Red Hook Park, Cost-Free

Shows in Staten Island:

The Sugarhill Gang (Music), August 2^nd &:00 PM, Tappen Park, Cost-Free

The Budos Band (Music), August 3^rd 7:00 PM, Tappen Park, Cost-Free

Shows in The Bronx:

Slick Rick (Music), July 12^th 7:00 PM, Crotona Park, Cost-Free

Xcstacy (Music), July 13^th 7:00 PM, Crotona Park, Cost-Free

Summer Shakeup! (Theatre), July 16^th 10:00 AM, Crotona Park, Cost-Free

Jackie Aqel

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at 4:48 pm and is filed under onEntertainment, Outside Manhattan, Uniqueness in NYC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.