Local Independent Artists Invade Parks and Sidewalks with Live Performances

With big fanfare, New York's state and city leaders promised to kickstart an arts and cultural revival in 2021 with programs such as NY PopsUp! and Open Culture. Meanwhile, many independent artists and promoters are demonstrating greater success in creating their own free and outdoor music events in the parks and on the sidewalks of New York City. With most traditional music venues still closed, musicians are finding audiences by performing on alternate stages.

The not-for-profit Make Music New York will return to more than 100 public spaces on June 21. Now in its 15th year, the all-day, all-city free outdoor concerts "celebrate our local musicians of all backgrounds, cultures, ages, genres, tastes, instruments, and skill levels, and to entice beginners to make music themselves," according to a press release. Applications are available online for musicians and host venues.

Chris Flash, publisher of a countercultural and anarchist newspaper called The Shadow, has secured permits for eight concerts in Tompkins Square Park beginning April 24. Flash told The Manhattan Beat that he is not yet at liberty to reveal the name of the headliner of the first show. Drew Stone of the New York Hardcore Chronicles will curate the May 8 program and hardcore punk band Urban Waste will curate the May 22 program.

Spike Polite & Sewage NYC at Union Square on March 20

Spike Polite & Sewage NYC, featuring Michelle Shocked on bass and Matthew Stenz on drums, performed on the northeast corner of Broadway and East 17th Street on March 20. The two-hour punk-rock set intended to bring attention to the Music Workers Alliance, an organization which is seeking fair and equitable economic justice, benefits and protections for all music workers. Polite teamed with Kate Peila, who operates the Front NYC gallery in the East Village, to secure the permit for this concert. Peila, who presents concerts outside her gallery, has a grant proposal in the works for an initiative which she hopes to expand into a series of movable street concerts called Block by Block.

Dirty Circuit at the Theater for the New City on March 6

PinkLips at the Theater for the New City on March 6

For several months, the Theater for the New City has been presenting Open 'Tho Shut, a series of free variety shows, every Saturday at 2 p.m. An eclectic mix of music acts and spoken word artists perform in the theater's backstage driveway, renamed the ChopShop Theater, to masked and socially-distant spectators standing on the sidewalk.

EveryTing at the Theater for the New City on March 6

JimiCrakCorn at the Theater for the New City on March 6

Will Will at the Theater for the New City on March 6

Buskers have begun gravitating to Central Park, McCarren Park, Prospect Park, Tompkins Square Park, Union Square Park, and other parks. Some of these musicians secure sound permits, while others take their chances by bringing portable amplifiers and wailing. The musicians play for tips, and many have reported that this is their only source of income at the present time.

Claudi Love of Pinc Louds performed solo in Tompkins Square Park on March 21;
the full band will perform there on Saturday, March 27

The Meetles at Tompkins Square Park on March 21

The Sammy Buttons Experience at the farmers market at Union Square Park on March 20

Lastly, sometimes revelers simply take to the streets for a good time. Pictured here, actors Eli Bridges and Mike Keller strolled down First Avenue in the East Village, stopping to sing oldies but goodies for diners in the sidewalk cafes.

Eli Bridges (left) and Mike Keller singing along First Avenue in the East Village on March 20