Brooklyn Roads Celebrates A Musical Summer in Brooklyn!

BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival has brought diverse and exciting entertainment to Prospect Park’s Bandshell stage every summer for nearly four decades.

People’s Choice/ photo by Ray Fontaine

The 39th year had a number of landmark moments, including the Garth Fagan Dance Company’s 45th performance at the Bandshell stage! History, community, nature and the arts come together at this festival tucked away in the urban oasis that is Prospect Park.

Sylvan Esso / photo by Ray Fontaine

Other performance highlights included Yeasayer, People’s Champs, Musiq Soulchild, Sylvan Esso and Youssou N’Dour. 2017’s mild summer awarded a number of perfect evenings to lie back in the grass and enjoy the show; however, there were nights that the weather did not cooperate.

Within the first song of Musiq Soulchild’s performance on July 7th, rain began to pour down on the unsheltered audience. Loyal fans crowded in together underneath tents to stay through the storm, singing along to Musiq Soulchild classics like “Teach Me How to Love”, “Just Friends”, and “Don’t Change”.

Yousou N’Dour / photo by Ray Fontaine

On July 26th, Sylvan Esso’s live performance highlighted the summer festival with a state of the art lighting system including a larger than life LED spiked structure and inspiring light show. Singer Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn, who are Sylvan Esso, kicked off the show, emerging silhouetted by light and smoke. Sylvan Esso’s live performance brought a whole new level of energy and dance ability to the music, not audible in the recorded versions.

Senegal’s first pop star, Youssou N’Dour, played on August 12th and brought a lot of dance and energy to the Bandshell stage, but unlike Sylvan Esso, came with back up dancers and a full blow band!

This past summer’s weather was as unpredictable as the Celebrate Brooklyn! Lineup, but this year’s performing artists brought the heat to Prospect Park!