New York’s SummerStage Shines Remotely With Anywhere Series, Star-Studded Jubilee

Mark Doyle – From Central Park to Cyberspace
George Clinton performs at SummerStage in New York City’s Central Park on June 4, 2019. The beloved concert series went digital in 2020.

This year, New York City’s summer looked different. With mass gatherings banned and spots including restaurants, theaters and nightclubs closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s network of more than 400 parks became invaluable, hosting parties, meetings, and other events often held indoors.

“Parks have been the only public assets that have been open for people to use,” says Heather Lubov, executive director of New York’s City Parks Foundation. “There was nothing else. Parks are suddenly on New Yorkers’ radars in a way they haven’t been before.”

One way the City Parks Foundation has provided relief to New Yorkers – and audiences around the world – has been by taking its beloved SummerStage concert series, which brings concerts to several Big Apple spaces including Central Park during warmer months, online.

Named SummerStage Anywhere, the digital initiative presented more than 60 events this summer – not far from the 80 to 100 in-person gigs SummerStage hosts in a typical year – that included diverse acts such as synth-pop singer-songwriter Shura, indie-rocker Waxahatchee and jazz extraordinaire Shabaka Hutchings.

The series has also lifted up local artists, featured talks with musicians like DJ Kool Herc and Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz and held showcases such as the Juneteenth Day of Dance and an August celebration of sax legend Charlie Parker’s 100th birthday. Last month, CPF partnered with Amazon Music and Twitch, and the collaboration has already yielded multi-artist events devoted to genres including hip-hop and Afrobeat.

The March arrival of the pandemic gave CPF runway to pivot to the digital space, and the continued support of title sponsor Capital One gave the organization financial support.

“From there, we built out a season that felt authentic to SummerStage, in that it reflects the way we would normally curate the festival, in terms of the kinds of genres that we present and the audiences that we serve,” Lubov says.

Like others in the business, Lubov notes that digital events can’t compare to in-person ones, but admits that “being digital gives you some opportunities that you don’t necessarily have with an in-person festival.”

Courtesy City Parks Foundation – Meet You At The Jubilee
The SummerStage Jubilee will host several high-profile musicians and entertainers to benefit New York City parks.

The best example might the SummerStage Jubilee, a Sept. 17 event held in place of CPF’s annual 500-person gala and featuring musical performances by Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio, Rosanne Cash, Rufus Wainwright and more, and stories from entertainers including Billie Jean King, Paul Shaffer, Lewis Black, Ryan Seacrest, Jimmy Fallon and H.E.R.

“It felt like an opportunity to reach artists who would not normally come together at SummerStage to perform, because they could be anywhere now,” Lubov says. “That’s why the lineup is as stellar as it is.”

The Jubilee will retain a fundraising dimension, but what was once an exclusive event has become free for a global audience.

Selling artists on the stream was easy, says Jubilee executive producer and SummerStage founder Joe Killian, because many of them have deep ties to SummerStage and New York parks.

“SummerStage is not owned by a big corporation or anything like that,” says Killian, adding that in Jones and Anastasio’s cases, both “were effusive about the audience and what SummerStage means to the city of New York and independent music venues.”

To demonstrate the park system’s far-reaching impact, Jubilee footage will go beyond its best-known spaces.

“You’ll see parks that you might not ever have heard of before, and that’s very intentional,” Lubov says. “I wanted the diversity of New York’s outdoor spaces to be reflected in the production.”

“It’s about all parks and programs and the importance of them,” Killian says. “This fits in with the great legacy of SummerStage of being diverse, eclectic, all genres and musically exceptional.”

SummerStage will likely include digital content even when physical events return, Lubov says. But she’s already eyeing in-person shows – and perhaps sooner than expected.

“We are completely ready to go,” says Lubov, explaining that CPF has compiled a document outlining plans for COVID-safe concerts, has spoken with city officials and could stage an event within a couple days of approval. “I’m the eternal optimist, but I still hold out hope that at some point we will be able to do an outdoor show, before the weather gets cold.”