New York City is planning on holding a large-scale concert in Central Park to celebrate the reopening of the city after over a year of COVID-19 related lockdowns and restrictions, The New York Times reported.
The show is set, tentatively, to take place on the park’s Great Lawn on Aug. 21 and should last for about three hours, hosting up to 60,000 attendees, as well as being broadcast worldwide. Although tickets for the show will reportedly be available free of charge, there may be additional VIP seating available.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Times that the event is a part of the city’s “Homecoming Week” that is intended to show how New York has recovered from the pandemic. The mayor’s office also said that the concert will have different sections for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people, with about two-thirds of tickets going to people who have received the vaccine. He also noted that the Chairman of New York City’s Economic Development, Danny Meyer, came up with the idea.
“This concert is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” de Blasio said. “It’s going to be an amazing lineup. The whole week is going to be like nothing you’ve ever seen before in New York City.”
He added that the Great Lawn, where he saw Stevie Wonder perform during the Global Citizen Festival, is “an absolutely stunning place for the concert. It makes you feel a deep connection to New York City.”
De Blasio said the concert “will emphatically make the point that there is no stopping New York,” according to ABC 7 in New York, and said he feels “very good about our ability to keep people safe outdoors and indoors.”
The mayor has tapped producer and music executive Clive Davis, winner of five Grammy Awards and an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to help organize the event. David, who is 89, said that he wants more than half a dozen “iconic” artists to perform.
The Times notes that Davis, who grew up in Brooklyn, has previously worked with Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, and Whitney Houston over the course of his career.
“I can’t think of a better place than the Great Lawn of Central Park to be the place where you say that New York is reopening,” Davis told the newspaper.
“There’s a mental attitude that I think we are all looking forward to,” he added. “That the future is bright and healthy for this country, for the world and for New York City.”
Source: Newmax
