Summertime means a lot of different things for people. Here in the City, it means more outdoor concerts in Central Park. People from several different neighborhoods and boroughs are drawn out for the evening and it feels very community. Then of course, with over 500 thousand visitors a day to New York, the concerts get their piece of the world community as well. The parks department works along side arborists and environmentalists to maintain the parks. This is an expensive operation however compared to a tree removal cost Fayetteville NC or something like that, it is competitively priced locally.

New York City offers something for everyone and the concerts in the park fill the bill to a tee. Named artists from all over the world covet the opportunity to play in the Park. The atmosphere is fun, free and encapsulates the very Nature of New York. Every genre of music is represented. Dance, song and sounds, riffs, pops from folk to rap, to rock to classical this is where the Music industry feels at home.

The canopy is the soft surrounding glow of the New York City lights. The open roofing makes for magical evenings. The City’s energy is all over the place, but cushioned in music and the natural green, stress-free setting.

2015 was an outstanding year hosting names such as Coldplay, Beyoncé, Bassekou Kouyate & Ngone Ba, Red Baraat, Andrea Bocelli. The eclectic array of musicians from all over the world is perfectly suited in the appreciative laps of picnickers and party goers of the Big Apple.

Relief concerts are held every week to benefit fellow artists from all mediums. Concerts in the Park are a great way to get things done. It’s a giant casual networking event designed to deliver circular benefits for all involved. Those who live to play and play to live are well represented by well known musicians along with those new to the scene. Money is donated to as many different causes as there are types of music.

From families who need fresh water in a remote village in Uganda, to local museums and help for the homeless. Concerts reach a vast number of people, and lend themselves easily to a sense of being involved with life rather than just observing it. Over the decades they have grown in popularity due to the atmosphere, the musicians, the warm summer nights, the comradeship, the causes.

One of the most impactful events to come to the Park, is the Global Citizen Festival. It was first introduced in 2012 by the Global Poverty Project to assure that every child in the world can survive and thrive, get an education, not worry about oppression because of gender or race. The Festival puts people in touch with some of the globe’s biggest challenges and gets people involved in sustainable solutions. Avenues of action are presented to attendees that offer opportunities to channel the power of hundreds of thousands of global citizens with financial support to the success of these goals.

The concerts are free and celebrity involvement makes for as much fun as you can possibly have at a cause concert. The Global Citizen Festival is a free-ticketed event by design and held on the Great Lawn in Central Park. The Festival coincides each year with the United Nations’ Global Goals of ending degradation of all people by the year 2030. Last year’s headliners generously donating their time and talent included: Steven Colbert as Host, Hugh Jackman, Selma Hayek Pinault, Olivia Wilde, Kerry Washington with performances by Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé.

Concerts are held at Central Park Spring, Summer and Fall, but for this writer one of the best parts of summer in the City is the concerts in the Park. Back in the first summer I was in New York, I had the good pleasure of seeing Paul Simon and Art Gunfunkle at Rumsey Playfield, and Diana Ross on stage at the Great Lawn. That was just the first summer of mega artist for me, and there have been 35 summers since.

If you have any reservations about coming to New York in the warmer months, don’t let them get in the way of a chance to experience a true taste of this magnificent town. If anything brings it home, it’s Central Park. Combine that with great music and positive, productive, play and it’s a time to create a memory that will never fade