Whether you want to dance the night away or take in the sculpture art, Lincoln Center welcomes New Yorkers to its first “Summer for the City.” NBC New York’s Linda Gaudino gives you a sneak peek at what to expect.
Get ready to dance the night away or unwind during an outdoor concert this summer for the second annual "Summer for the City" series hosted at Lincoln Center.
"Summer for the City" kicked off for the first time last year, offering dozens of free, live performances and family events for New Yorkers to engage in. This year, the festival is back for round 2 to celebrate the city's communities through multi-cultural art.
Starting this June, Lincoln Center will transform its entire campus for three months under the Visual Director Clint Ramos, infusing the outdoor spaces with botanical inspiration, al fresco dining, neon lights and a vibrant art installation with 200 flamingos near the Paul Milstein Reflecting Pool. Nearby the pool, the giant 10-foot disco ball returns from last summer's silent disco under the moonlight.
According to Lincoln Center, the inaugural season welcomed over 300,000 audience members -- more than 75% of whom had never before attended a presentation at the venue.
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"We were thrilled to welcome so many New Yorkers and audiences new to campus last summer with hundreds of free shows, and we are doubling down on that welcome with this year's programming and schedule," said Shanta Thake, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, to NBC New York.
With a city as diverse as New York, there is something for everyone to enjoy with genres like K-pop, jazz, salsa, merengue, Broadway and more, including a rendition of Company entirely performed by actors using American Sign Language.
The campus plans to honor Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary by celebrating the cultural influence of the genre, including a live mixtape with Brooklyn DJ J.PERIOD performed with artists Rakim and Big Daddy Kane.
"This summer, we have a real understanding of how all our spaces work at full capacity and we've programmed multiple evenings throughout the summer that have simultaneous, overlapping shows—whether on The Dance Floor, in Damrosch Park, in the new David Geffen Hall, or in The Underground—bringing all of these different New Yorkers together in the same space," said Thake.
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In addition to the music and dance segments, couples are invited to celebrate love, relive their wedding day or get hitched during a ceremony brought together by Tony, Grammy, and Olivier award-winning director Scott Wittman.
While most of the performances will be free, select indoor options will have Choose-What-You-Pay tickets built from last season's model with a $5 minimum. There is a Fast Track line to give those who register early for shows priority access to events before general admission, which is first-come, first-serve.
