New York can be a sweltering concrete jungle in the summer. But the city is also a huge, beautiful playground. And if ever there was a year to schedule a summer “staycation,” 2012 might be it. With food festivals, free concerts and a safe and sanctioned dip into the East River, there is more than enough happening to keep you happily occupied till Labor Day. Whether you are an athlete, aesthete, scholar, theatergoer, concertgoer, tourist or most anything else, here are some suggestions to get you started. STEVEN McELROY
Governors Island opens this weekend. Visitors who hop the free ferry there on Sunday can pig out at 5 Boro PicNYC, a craft beer, food and music festival. There are competitive cooking events to watch, as well: sausage and grilled cheese cook-offs and a taco challenge (May 27, 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 5boropicnyc.com; $25). Once you’re full, check out “Amelia,” a site-specific Civil War drama staged at Fort Jay (May 26 and 27, then Thursdays through Sundays through June 17, 3 p.m., ameliatheplay.com; free).
Passage to Randalls Island is also free, but you won’t need a boat. Walk across the newly restored 103rd Street footbridge from Manhattan to see Go With the Flow, a morning of live music by the Mariachi Academy of New York, tennis and soccer lessons for the children, arts activities and more (June 2, 10 a.m. to noon, randallsisland.org; free). The program includes Flow. 12, an exhibition of five site-specific art installations that will be on view all summer.
The Transit of Venus, a rare astronomical event in which the planet can be seen passing across the sun, will take place on June 5, the first time since 2004, though North America will get only a quick glimpse before the sun sets. Members of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York will be observing beginning at 4 p.m. from the High Line in Chelsea (enter at 14th Street and 10th Avenue) and at Riverside Park South, next to Pier I Café, near West 70th Street. The group regularly offers stargazing on Tuesday nights, too, continuing all summer at the High Line location (8:30 p.m.). The park, which now stretches from Gansevoort Street to West 30th Street, is also a great place just to mosey around (7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, thehighline.org).
This summer is the 50th anniversary of Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. A production of “As You Like It” with original bluegrass tunes composed by Steve Martin starts next week (June 5-30; free). Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” will follow (July 23-Aug. 25, shakespeareinthepark.org; free). There are plenty more free Shakespeare events coming up, including another “As You Like It,” from the Inwood Shakespeare Festival (June 6-23, Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, moosehallisf.org; free), a production of “The Comedy of Errors” in Riverside Park (June 7-July 1, hudsonwarehouse.net; free) and an all-female production of “Henry V” being staged outdoors in a few locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn (June 16-July 17, manhattanshakes.org; free).
Summer brings rooftop dining and the occasional rooftop film screening. Less expected might be the Academy of American Poets’ annual “Poetry From the Rooftops” series. On June 14, atop the arsenal building in Central Park, Dan Beachy-Quick, Harmony Holiday and Eileen Myles will participate in the first of the twilight talks this year. Others are planned for July 12, Aug. 9 and Sept. 13 (6:30 p.m., Arsenal Building at Central Park, 64th Street at Fifth Avenue, poets.org/rooftop; free).
Williamsburg Park, a new concert space at Kent Avenue and North 12th Street in Brooklyn that will fit about 7,000 people, opens this summer, with the first concert set for June 15. Jens Lekman, Of Montreal, the Thermals and Beach Fossils will perform that day (doors open at 4 p.m.; $33.50), as part of the busy fourth annual Northside Festival. The festival’s 70 musical acts are spread among more than 25 sites in Williamsburg and Greenpoint from June 14 to 17. Northside continues through June 21 and includes art, film and entrepreneurship components, as well (northsidefestival.com).
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will open the annual Naumburg Orchestral Concerts series at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park (June 19, 7:30 p.m.). The series, which has been presenting free outdoor classical concerts since 1905, will also include appearances by the Knights (July 10 and 24) and Lara St. John and Friends (Aug. 7; Naumburg Bandshell, south of the 72nd Street cross-drive, Central Park, naumburgconcerts.org).
Commemorate the summer solstice and the official start of summer at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, where you can watch the sun set behind the Manhattan skyline at the end of the longest day of the year. The annual celebration includes art workshops, face painting and more (June 20, 5 p.m. to dusk, 32-01 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, socratessculpturepark.org; free).
The annual NYC Pride March, with Cyndi Lauper among the grand marshals this year, is always quite a party (June 24, 11 a.m., beginning at Fifth Avenue and 36th Street and ending at Christopher and Greenwich Streets, Manhattan, nycpride.org). The festivities also include Rapture on the River, for lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other women (June 23, 4-11 p.m., Pier 57, 15th Street at the West Side Highway; $25 in advance or $35); PrideFest, the annual street fair (June 24, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Hudson Street between Abingdon Square and West 14th Street) and other ancillary events.
The very funny Chicagoan Hannibal Buress, who recently won the 2012 Comedy Award for best club comic, is coming to Red Hook Park in Brooklyn for a one-night event on June 24 at 7:30 p.m. The performance is one of the more than 200 free events citywide that make up this year’s City Parks Foundation Summerstage extravaganza (summerstage.org).
You can call it “FEEL … FORM,” but the full title of the work by the choreographer Luciana Achugar is “FEELingpleasuresatisfactioncelebrationholyFORM.” It is a dance meditation for four women, and will be performed at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal four times (June 30-July 3) as part of this year’s River to River Festival. The performing arts festival’s calendar is crammed with indoor and outdoor events, all free and all over town, including the Philip Glass Ensemble playing at Rockefeller Park and the annual Bang on a Can Marathon (June 17-July 15, rivertorivernyc.com).
For a break from the sun, try visiting a dark theater. The New York Musical Theater Festival usually occurs in the fall but is moving to midsummer this year (July 9-29, nymf.org). The festival, where “Next to Normal” and “[title of show]” had their premieres, will again offer a number of new musicals. Also coming up are the Planet Connections Theater Festivity (May 30-June 24, planetconnections.org), Midtown International Theater Festival (July 16-Aug. 12, midtownfestival.org) and the New York International Fringe Festival (Aug. 10-26, fringenyc.org).
Several independent bookstores in Brooklyn are banding together for “Books Beneath the Bridge,” a new outdoor reading and discussion series in Brooklyn Bridge Park. On six consecutive Monday nights at 7, a different bookstore will present an event. The first, scheduled for July 9 and curated by Freebird Books, will feature Brian Francis Slattery reading from his post-apocalyptic novel “Lost Everything.”
Remember when your mother used to tell you to go out and play instead of sitting in front of the television? Well grown-ups can take that advice, too, at the annual Come Out and Play Festival. Hunt down other players in the dark streets around South Street Seaport during After Dark (July 13, 7 p.m. to midnight) or play dodge ball and lots of other games at the Field Day on Governors Island (July 14, noon to 6 p.m., comeoutandplay.org).
It is probably safe to assume that David Johansen of the New York Dolls and Joan Baez don’t have a million things in common, but both hail from Staten Island, and both are featured in “Island Sounds: A 500 Year Music Mash-Up” at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. This new multimedia exhibition includes artifacts and memorabilia of many musicians who were born or lived on Staten Island, including Vernon Reid from Living Colour, RZA from Wu-Tang Clan and Roy Clark (Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. through Dec. 20, 2013, snug-harbor.org; $5; students and seniors, $4; children under 12, free). Leave some time to stroll the center’s gardens after the indoor exhibition.
We see boats in the East River far more often than we see swimmers, but floating bodies (live ones) do flood the waters around Manhattan every so often. NYC Swim, which has run events in the river since 1993, will hold its annual 1K Brooklyn Bridge Swim on July 15. Participants plop into the water at Brooklyn Bridge Park and swim over to East River Park, at Dover Street and South Street in Manhattan. NYC Swim holds other events, too, including a Governors Island Swim on July 28 (nycswim.org).
The Finnish accordion player Kimmo Pohjonen’s odd and intriguing performance piece “Accordion Wrestling” (in which a group of Greco-Roman wrestlers fight/dance while he plays) is one of the eclectic offerings at the 42nd annual Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival. In all, the festival will offer more than 100 free performances at the Damrosch Park Bandshell and the plazas at Lincoln Center (July 25-Aug. 12, lcoutofdoors.org).
The city will soon be populated with bicycles bearing the Citibank logo, as the new CitiBike bike-sharing program begins this summer. Eventually, 600 stations will hold about 10,000 bikes available for 24-hour transportation, with the first stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn expected to open in late July. Riders will be able to buy daily ($9.95), weekly ($25) or annual memberships ($95) for unlimited short trips; longer rides cost extra (citibikenyc.com).
Summer’s almost over and you haven’t been to Coney Island yet? Unforgivable! The Scream Zone section of Luna Park has expanded to include go-carts and a pseudo-sky-diving experience, Boardwalk Flight, that will swing you through the skies at 60 miles per hour. The thrill rides Soarin’ Eagle and Sling Shot and the nearly 85-year-old Cyclone roller coaster are still there, too. If your stomach isn’t up for the rides, perhaps check out sideshow acts like Scott Baker eating fire or glass (coneyisland.com). Still feeling squeamish? Visit the New York Aquarium or attend a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game instead.
We began our summer 2012 by stuffing ourselves on Governors Island, so why not end it the same way? The annual “Pig Island” blowout will feature local farmers, chefs, vintners, brewers and a whole lot of hogs. (Sept. 1, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., pigisland.com; $55). The continuing interactive sculpture garden “Figment” will be there, too, through Sept. 23 (newyork.figmentproject.org).
