“Free” Summer

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I've previously sung the praises of the New York summer, where everything seems to move outdoors and the music is, more often than not, free. From downtown's River to River Festival, to Park Slope's own Celebrate Brooklyn, to Williamsburg's Pool Parties (which, yes, are returning this year), New Yorkers have access to a huge palette of music: everything from jazz, to indie rock, to roots and world music, most of it at no cost. 

Of course, these shows cost money to put on, most of which is provided through corporate sponsorship and private donations (including that $3 you're supposed to throw in at the gate.) In the case of Central Park's Summerstage and Celebrate Brooklyn, they've also resorted to "benefit concerts": paid shows whose proceeds, "support the full season of free programs," as Summerstage says on their website.

Well, in the interest of keeping these guys honest, let's see just how many of these shows are actually "free." (I'm only including music events, not film or dance evenings):

Celebrate Brooklyn
Free Shows:
Monday, June 8David Byrne

Thursday, June 11, Goran Bregovic & His Weddings & Funerals Orchestra

Friday, June 19, David Rudder/Samantha Thornhill

Saturday, June 20,, La Nave de los Monstruos, with live score by Ethel and Gutbucket 

Thursday, June 25Femi Kuti & The Positive Force/Melvin Gibbs¹ Elevated Entity

Friday, June 26Blonde Redhead

Saturday, June 27, Dr. Dog/Phosphorescent/These United States

Thursday, July 2, Obie Juan Bermudéz/Cucu Diamantes/Rebel Diaz Bud Light Latin Music Series

Friday, July 10,  Celebrate Brooklyn and LAMC present Los Amigos Invisibles/Aterciopelados Bud Light Latin Music Series

Saturday, July 11, Ezra Jack Keats Family Concert A Very Special Show with They Might Be Giants

Thursday, July 16, Kronos Quartet/Luminescent Orchestrii

Friday, July 17, The Robert Cray Band/The Sweet Divines American Express Roots Music Series

Saturday, July 18, African Festival with King Sunny Adé/Freshly Ground/The Mandingo Ambassadors/Cheikh M¹Baye & Sing Sing/Abena Koomson/Yasser Darwish American Express Roots Music Series

Friday, July 24, Buckwheat Zydeco/The Holmes Brothers American Express Roots Music Series

Saturday, July 25, Kailash Kher/Electro Morocco

Thursday, July 30, Burning Spear/Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens

Friday, July 31, The Royal Family: Soulive¹s 10th Anniversary Celebration, with Special Guests John Scofield and Christian Scott/Ivan Neville & Dumpstaphunk

Saturday, August 1, Music & Movies Dean & Britta: 13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol¹s Screen Tests/ Crystal Stilts

Thursday, August 6, Music & Movies Purple Rain Sing-A-Long with Escort

Friday, August 7, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals/ Deer Tick / The London Souls

Saturday, August 8, Celebrate Brooklyn & Lyricist Lounge Present Big Daddy Kane (with Special Guests TBA)

Benefit Concerts:

July 1, MGMT

July 21, Jackson Browne

August 11 , TV on the Radio

August 12 , Bonnie Raitt & Taj Mahal

August 14 & 15, Animal Collective

Total Free Shows: 21

Total Benefit Concerts: 5 


Summerstage
Free Shows: 
Friday, June 12, Josh Ritter and The New York Pops

Saturday, June 13, Smokie Norful, Tye Tribbett & G.A. & Ruben Studdard

Sunday, June 21, Fête de la Musique with Yannick Noah, Coralie Clément & Mayra Andrade

Saturday, June 27, Istanbulive: The Sounds & Colors of Turkey. Mazhar-Fuat-Özkan w/ Painted on Water featuring Sertab Erener & Demir Demirkan & NY Gypsy All-Stars with Hüsnü Senlendirici and special guests.

Sunday, June 28, Ledisi / Esperanza Spalding, Jonathan Batiste 

Sunday, July 5, Oumou Sangare, Les Nubians, Asa

Wednesday, July 8, Juana Molina, Curumin & El G (ZZK)

Saturday, July 11, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs & Eric Bobo

Sunday, July 12, Family Day! w/ DJ Lance Rock & Brobee (of Yo Gabba Gabba!), Surprise Guest TBA, Iza Trapani & Sleeping Beauty puppet show

Monday, July 13, The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Featuring Paulo Szot

Saturday, July 18, Q-Tip, Chester French, Little Dragon & Benji B

Sunday, July 19, Alpha Blondy & The Solar System , Lee "Scratch" Perry & Dubblestandart, and Subatomic Sound System

Friday, July 24, Bettye Lavette, Budos Band & Felix Hernandez Rhythm Revue

Saturday, July 25, Jerry Rivera and special guests & N'Klabe

Sunday, July 26, Ginuwine, Joe & Chico DeBarge

Saturday, August 1, M. Ward/Mike Watt/Nels Cline + Yuka Honda & Dougie Bowne

Sunday, August 2, Silvia Machete

Monday, August 3, Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabaté

Wednesday, August 5, The Pedrito Martinez Project

Thursday, August 6, Mingus Dynasty Quintet

Saturday, August 8, Boys Noize, Drop the Lime

Sunday, August 9, Jazmine Sullivan, Chrisette Michele & Jon B

Sunday, August 16, Dinosaur Jr., The Walkmen, Saviours

Benefit Concerts:
June 5, TV on the Radio, Dirty Projectors
June 16, Indigo Girls, Matt Nathanson
June 30, Explosions in the Sky, Constantines, Castanets
July 9, Matisyahu, Umphree's McGee
August 10, Pretenders, Cat Power, Juliette Lewis

Total Free Shows: 23
Total Benefit Concerts: 6

So, in both cases, about 20% are paid shows. Which, I guess in the scheme of things, isn't overly greedy. It's interesting that Summerstage chose to host most of their benefit shows in June, while Celebrate Brooklyn pushed most of theirs towards the end of the season. Whatever, as long as they're not all happening at the same time… 
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