Put away the checkbook and pull out the calendar!
Brooklyn arts purveyor Bric this week revealed the long-awaited lineup of its mostly pro bono summer concert series Celebrate Brooklyn!, which this year includes 25 free music, multi-media, and dance performances at the Prospect Park Bandshell.
The event will feature class acts from the world over, and everybody is invited, according to the man who put it all together.
“Musicians, dancers and poets from all over the globe with different opinions, persuasions, orientations and religions will take the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival stage at the Prospect Park Bandshell to compel, intrigue, entertain and uplift us,” said Jack Walsh, the festival’s executive producer. “We invite everyone to join us for ten weeks of beautiful Brooklyn evenings under the stars — listening, watching, and enjoying the potent culture that our world has to offer.”
The fine culture–focused organization invites Kings County music lovers to lay blankets across the sprawling lawn surrounding the bandshell off Prospect Park West, and join its 39th summer concert series with a kick-off performance from the Brooklyn-based pop-jazz quartet Lake Street Dive on June 7.
Another 20 world-class musical acts will follow, including a fusion of brass and hip-hop from the Soul Rebels featuring Brooklyn’s-own Talib Kweli on June 24, a Rasta revival courtesy of Kingston’s Chronixx on July 8, and a celebration of all things newgrass from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with opener Nellie McKay, on August 3.
Dance lovers should keep an eye out for performances from Jamaican-born boogie man Garth Fagan on June 30, and the whimsical physicality of Pilobolus dance troupe on July 6.
The summer will also feature three multi-media performances combining film and music, including a screening of the 1925 silent film “Maciste All’inferno” accompanied by a live musical performance from Sex Mob — plus an opening set from everyone’s favorite anti-consumerist ensemble Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir — on July 27; a showing of 2015 boxing flick “Creed” with a live score by Wordless Music Orchestra on Aug. 4; and a screening of the 2014 civil rights history “Selma” with live music courtesy of Jason Moran leading Wordless Music Orchestra and Brooklyn United Marching Band on Aug. 10.
If you’ve got some cash burning a hole in your wallet, indie rocker Sufjan Stevens will tear it up with Nico Muhly, Bryce, Dessner and James McAlister on July 18 for $50, and you can also check out a number of other paid acts including performances from Conor Oberst on July 20, Sylvan Esso on July 26, or Fleet Foxes on Aug. 2.
Bric Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at the Prospect Park Bandshell [141 Prospect Park West between 10th and 11th streets in Prospect Park, www.brica
