BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, among the most important summer festivals in New York, announced the program of the 2026 season, which will be held from June 4 to September 19 at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The festival has arrived at its 47th edition – it has been going on since 1979 – and this year it will alternate (many) free concerts at (pochi) paid shows: in all there are 15 free shows and three benefits concert, that is, paid concerts also used to support the free programming of BRIC.
The theme chosen for 2026 is “Radical Joy”, an expression that BRIC uses to tell the idea of a city that finds itself around music without having to pay a ticket. It is a formula inevitably a little from institutional presentation, but in this case it describes quite well the sense of the festival: not only a series of concerts, but a very New York use of public space, where a park becomes for some nights a meeting place between generations, neighborhoods and different communities. The season will open on June 4 with Sheila E., Leon Knight and DJ Spinna, and will continue with very different names and appointments, from Antibalas to Wayne Wonder, from Cindy Blackman Santana to Sasha Velour’s NightGowns.
Among the most anticipated dates is that of June 26 with Patti LaBelle, one of the most famous voices of American soul music, indicated by the organizers among the main names of the season. On August 28, Common will be at the centre of an evening dedicated to the legacy of Harry Belafonte, artist and activist who died in 2023, remembered not only for his musical and film career but also for his commitment to the civil rights movement. On September 19 the closing will be entrusted to Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney, with a stage of the tour “The Flannel and The Fury”: it will be one of the paid events of the season, along with Patti LaBelle and Royel Otis.
In June there will be, among others, Infinity Song, Annie and the Caldwells, Victory Boyd, Wayne Wonder and Lila Iké. In July the festival will go from an evening linked to the music of the Arab and North African world, with EMEL, Mai Elgizouli, Nesrine, Yacine Boulares and the Habibi Festival House Band, to concerts closer to the Indian and contemporary jazz, such as Royel Otis, Cindy Blackman Santana Group and Patricia Brennan Septet. August will be occupied by the celebration of Aaliyah, the 35th anniversary of the Lyricist Lounge, Yola with Dom Flemons and the Traveling Wildfires, the Dominican evening at the Bandshell and the concert of Common. According to BRIC, the 2026 season is also one of the most women-oriented in the history of the festival.
The shows will be held at Lena Horne Bandshell, inside Prospect Park, with entrance from Prospect Park West and 9th Street. For free events, access remains generally in order of arrival, although BRIC invites the public to register online to better manage turnout: Celebrate Brooklyn! is free, but it is not a small event, and for the most anticipated evenings arriving in advance can make a difference. The benefit concert, on the other hand, requires a ticket and is used to finance part of the free programming. In this is a good part of the balance of the festival: to use some great names also to keep accessible many other evenings, in a city where almost nothing, especially in summer, seems really free.
L’articolo Back to the <i>BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!</i> with different free live proviene da IlNewyorkese.