Where Brooklyn Meets the World: BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! 2025 Unites Global Sounds

June 2, 2025 by Michela Arlia

This summer, Brooklyn’s cultural heartbeat returns with the 47th season of BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! — a free, open-air performing arts festival transforming the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park into a global stage. From June 7 through August 16, the 2025 season carries the theme “Where Brooklyn Meets… The World,” spotlighting the borough’s role as a vibrant crossroads of international music and culture.

Celebrate Brooklyn! Stage/ photo courtesy of B.L.Howard Productions

The festival officially kicks off on June 9 with a powerhouse benefit concert featuring the legendary Grace Jones and genre-defying Janelle Monáe. This opening night will set the tone for a season rich in diversity and artistic discovery.

Free performances begin June 13 with a celebration of Haitian musical heritage, headlined by Mélissa Laveaux, Nathalie “TALIE” Cerin, and Riva Nyri Précil. Other highlights include the 3rd annual Juneteenth celebration on June 19, the Habibi Festival on June 20, and two tributes to Quincy Jones on June 27 entitled “The Greatest Night in Pop” and “A Tribute to Quincy Jones: The Wiz” on July 27.

The lineup also features indie favorites like Buscabulla and punk legends Gogol Bordello. Benefit concerts include Still Woozy on July 12, Dinosaur Jr. with Snail Mail on July 17, and Men I Trust on July 18.

Saidah Blount/photo by Skye/courtesy of This Is Dope PR

To close out the festival on August 16, Nick Hakim will bring his unique blend of R&B and soul with his music, leaving audiences feeling like they are in an intimate and this-world setting. Emmy-winning drummer, rapper, and producer Karriem Riggins will open with a DJ set you won’t want to miss.

The Crowd at Club Quarantine -Celebrate Brooklyn! / photo by Al Pereira

The Crowd at Celebrate Brooklyn! / photo by Al Pereira

Executive Director Saidah Blount has been previously quoted with the Prospect Park Alliance to emphasize the festival’s mission, saying, “The Lena Horne Bandshell transforms into a global gathering place—where rhythms, stories, and cultures from around the world meet to form Brooklyn’s creative heartbeat.”

With over a dozen free shows and four ticketed benefit concerts, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! 2025 offers a summer of music, dance, and community.

Artists on our Radar

Brayden Baird Is Asking the Big Questions – And Making You Laugh Through the Pain

Brayden Baird -photo courtesy of Mix-Tape Media

After decades of producing and releasing music under various aliases, Brooklyn’s own Brayden Baird is stepping into the spotlight with his most raw and refined work yet. Backed by the Once in a Lifetime Band, Baird’s upcoming LP Lord, why do you do these things to me? is a heartfelt and even satirical exploration of grief, identity, and faith that refuses to follow conventional sounds before its time. Across the ten-track album, Baird weaves catchy humor with emotional vulnerability, building a soundscape that feels intimate and extravagant all at once. His lyrics are clever without being cynical and full of sincerity; this delicate balance places him alongside emerging alt-folk figures like Cameron Winter and Nate Amos. The album kicks off with its title track, a sharp, stomping folk-rock number that wrestles with clever anecdotes and the chaos of unanswered prayers. From there, the songs unravel like chapters in a personal essay. The blending of stories of loss, family, addiction, and self-discovery comes about in just about every track. “Light in the Tunnel” turns a daily subway ride into an anthem of personal awakening. At the same time, “When Will the Sun Rise Again?” delivers a haunting, piano-led meditation on mourning and artistic authenticity. Other tracks showcase Baird’s gift for finding light in unlikely places. “Blue for the Body” is a lively reflection on coping mechanisms based on Gatorade flavors, which Baird says “is intended as a fun jam that people can sing and play along to and make light of the weight of addictions.”. “Pelican” draws on childhood lore amid his father’s mythical stories that untangle complex family bonds. With the accompanying music video for this track, Baird draws on whimsical elements of his father’s storytelling, saying, “In life, it is so easy to hate somebody based on the things they’ve done and so hard to forgive. After all, we are just working with the things we’ve got.” One of the album’s most affecting moments, which comes halfway through “It Kills Me to See You Sick,” channels rage and helplessness into a hushed piano ballad that’s both deeply personal and widely relatable, with Baird recounting the pain and sadness behind the song’s creation as his mom was diagnosed with Cancer as other family members were simultaneously hospitalized. On the last track of the album, “When You Were Castrated,” Baird confronts mortality and estrangement with brutal honesty about his father’s passing, delivering a final note that is at once heartbreaking and cathartic. Baird’s musical world is one of contradictions: funny and tragic, sarcastic and sincere, spiritual and grounded. With Lord, why do you do these things to me?* he’s created an album that doesn’t just tell stories but invites listeners to sit with them, question them, and sing along anyway. Catch Brayden Baird and the Once in a Lifetime Band at their album release show at The Rabbit Hole in Brooklyn on June 26 and stream the whole record on June 20.

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