By Gus Saltonstall
Central Park’s Great Lawn will reopen on Saturday (weather permitting) following damage that took place from the Global Citizen Festival at the end of last September.
Over the past few months, the Central Park Conservancy’s Landscape Management team seeded and aerated some of the damaged areas. In more heavily damaged sections, putting down new sod was necessary, a spokesperson from the conservancy told the Rag.
The Great Lawn typically is closed from mid-to-late November through April, but this season’s closure came earlier due to heavy rain, foot traffic, and damage from machinery used for staging the September 23 concert.
At the time, the Conservancy said it was “very disappointed” to be shuttering the Great Lawn section earlier than usual.
The conservancy spokesperson said the group spent $622,000 on the repairs but last week was reimbursed the full amount by Global Citizen. That group, in partnership with the city’s Parks Department, announced on Monday that the festival will return to the Great Lawn this year.
“We look forward to coming back again on September 28 to drive more action and commitments towards ending extreme poverty,” Hugh Evans, co-founder and CEO of Global Citizen, said in a news release. The concert has been hosted annually in Central Park since 2012.
The lineup for this year’s festival has not yet been revealed.
Councilmember Gale Brewer appreciated that Global Citizen paid for the restoration, but told West Side Rag that she still does not believe the concert should take place again on the Great Lawn. In October of 2023, Brewer wrote a letter to Mayor Eric Adams and Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue urging them to find another venue to host the annual festival.
“Great that they paid for the damage as a result of my advocacy but Global Citizen Festival still shouldn’t be in Central Park,” Brewer told the Rag on Monday. “There are many suitable locations in New York City that are not public amenities.”
Donoghue remarked in the press release on Monday that she looked forward to the Global Citizen Festival this year in the park.
“Our public greenspaces are where New Yorkers gather for connection, celebration, and release, and that proud tradition continues as we welcome Global Citizen Festival back to Central Park this September!” Donoghue said.
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Is Gale Brewer insane? Why would she agree to have the festival back in the same spot they destroyed? How can anyone justify this decision?
Brewer objects!
Lisa !
Gale Brewer said no such thing… She is against it!!!!
A matter of fact, she’s totally against Global Citizens Festival and has been from the beginning.
And for what they did last year, I’m totally disgusted by them. And they should not be allowed back on the Great Lawn of Central Park.
What does Gale Brewer have to do with this, and are you able to read? This was a decision between the organizers of the event and the NYC Parks department, led by NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. Also, it might be worth pointing out that Global citizens have taken over 33 million actions, resulting in over $43 billion being distributed to non-profit partners around the world, impacting more 1.3 billion lives. Enjoy your day!
New York City Parks has nothing to do with Central Park. It is the Central Park Conservancy.
Not correct. All of the Parks with conservancies are still under the auspices of NYC Parks, for certain aspects of maintenance, security, etc. Central Park is less so, as Central Park Conservancy is one of the oldest, largest organizations, but Central Park still has NYC Parks personnel involved in it.
You forget that the Central Park Conservancy would have had to agree to the event too.
I certainly can read. Perhaps you don’t know that Gale’s district encompasses Central Park and she has to agree to events that take place there.
Lisa,
Well, Looks to me you don’t know how to read….
Yes, Gale Brewer’s district does cover this area, but she does not have to agree on events in Central Park.
In this case with Global Citizens Festival, she never has agreed, she has been against it from the day they started.
And I agree with her!
Leave the Great Lawn alone!
The people/my neighbor here on W. 81st Street/CPW are not fans of Global Citizens Festival. 👎
Gail Brewer clearly stated it should NOT come back. You misread .
From the article: “Councilmember Gale Brewer appreciated that Global Citizen paid for the restoration, but told West Side Rag that she still does not believe the concert should take place again on the Great Lawn. In October of 2023, Brewer wrote a letter to Mayor Eric Adams and Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue urging them to find another venue to host the annual festival.”
Hello Kim, that is correct and I have a copy of that letter. If anyone wishes to read it they can email me and I’ll be glad to forward it onto them:
Billy@ West80thstreet.com
I just got off the phone with Gale Brewer, she said…..
“I do not support the Global Festival! ”
And there must’ve been a misunderstanding….
Our Block Association and our Upper Westside neighbors do not support the Central Park Conservancy approving
the Global Citizens Festival returning to the Great Lawn in Central Park.
New York City Parks department has nothing to do with Central Park.
In cases like this, the Parks Dept has the ability to overrule the Conservancy. If the Arsenal (NYC Parks Head office) or Arsenal West (Manhattan Parks Head Office) tell the Conservancy that the event will happen, the event will happen.
YES THEY DO!! They literally run the parks department, which includes Central Park!! Read the linked article, and tell me again I am wrong.
They should not be allowed to return after doing so much damage!
That is disgraceful, letting the Global Citizens Festival return after what they did to our beautiful Great Lawn and ruined our autumn. The Central Park Great Lawn is not meant to have this type of events and it’s only meant for the people and visitors of the City Of New York to lay and play on enjoying the background sites of New York City.
Shame on the Central Park Conservancy for letting this happen and shame on Council lady of NYC Gale A. Brewer taking back her word promising the people of New York “Global Citizens Festival will not return again! “
That’s a bit overdramatic. Ruined our autumn? If that’s true, you’ve got bigger issues. They owned the issue and paid up. Get over it. There are larger problems.
Gosh, makes me wonder about the overall balance sheet of this charitable event, that they can just absorb $600,000 for venue damage. Almost tempted to look up a 990 form and see what they spend for what they can contribute and to whom. Glad the Great Lawn can and has recovered but whew.
I’ve never heard of an actual project tied to this org. Charity Navigator gives Global Citizen 3 out of 4 stars but says there’s not enough data to evaluate their impact. Such a vague mission [Individuals taking action to end extreme poverty…] leads me to think it’s not that focused or effective. In any case, their fundraiser does not need to happen on public park space.
The CEO makes more than $500,000 a year, according to this evaluation:
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/421772557
Sounds like he should be investigated by the IRS! As all these organizations are ripping off the public of donations!!!!
The IRS should investigate them. I will bring it to their attention.
Good idea. The most recent 990 for Global Citizen on IRS’s website is the 2021 form. It’s at https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/421772557_202112_990_2023031521115569.pdf
Thanks for posting that! I just took a non-expert quick look. Leadership have UWS addresses (unless I misread that) – so maybe there is local interest. They took in a bit less than they paid in operations in 2021 – over $90.000,000 each way. From memory – $50,000,000 of the spending was for outside media contractors for that mega staging/streaming production. Another $6,000,000 in advertising.Big production costs beyond that too. Over $10,000,000 in salaries and benefits. The ad budget struck me because the total paid out in grants and donations to domestic and foreign charities is – like a calf next to an elephant – also around $6,000,000. Not that those receiving organizations didn’t get meaningful cash….And the amount of expense over income was not so different from that too. “Legal” budget was around $500,000 – so that wasn’t the Park repair (maybe they had great insurance for weather related venue repair?). Anyway, I know philanthropy has bizarre budgets – and putting on a big show for a lot of fun for a big audience to generate a modest amount of charity and awareness is a very familiar model with a long history. (In New York, since the days of the white-gloved-and-gowned “disease balls” at the Plaza!) But this modern day operation is interesting to understand better. Not for nothing, it puts a lot of New Yorkers to work for the event as part of that budget. More professional opinion welcome! Is this a great event/organization?
It does make you wonder about many of the pronouncements that are made by local officials. Be it housing, homeless shelters, safety, or other uses of public space and the effectiveness of these roles to begin with. Often feels like its a lot of lip service and local color but in the end money talks.
An egregious breach of what is in the interest of the public good. Our parks belong to the citizens of NYC – not a concert. Not to mention the deafening noise pollution that disrupts our neighborhoods, and our nature.
“Our parks belong to the citizens of NYC – not a concert.” Umm, literally hundreds of thousands of the “citizens of NYC” attended and had a blast. Aren’t there bigger issues to get so up in arms about?
Maybe Global Citizen can just get people to think of others and be generous – without a concert that generates damage, trash and waste?
There is ton of garbage
If Global Citizen NEEDS to do a concert in NYC then how about doing it in a venue that’s already set up for this?!
Exactly. Do it on Randall’s Island.
But, they have grass too. Oh, the humanity!
Yes, but wrecking Randall’s Island inconveniences a lot less people than wrecking the Great Lawn. This isn’t hard.
The great lawn is fine. Took a few weeks away. Lots of other spots to spend time in the park during those winter weeks.
There are bigger problems than this.
Amazing, but when is Sheep’s Meadow opening??
Everything that has been closed for the winter in Central Park will open on Saturday.
Follow the money. Some city dept is making big$. Huge numbers of police and city employees on massive overtime for Global Citizen weekend – large parts of the park fenced off. Many questions
I wonder how much money they pay the Conservancy to put the concert on at the Great Lawn?
Why bring the concert back to the Great Lawn where the WHOLE CITY cannot use it afterwards for months on end, all due to ONE evening of a concert? Find a paved space someplace and hold it there. Why ruin the lawn AGAIN, when it was just restored?
You are right!
What happened to common sense?
Why not consider Randall’s Island for the Global Citizen event? Plenty of parkland, Icahn Stadium for performances, and no neighbors to inconvenience with noise, traffic and damage to Central Park.
Not worth it to have the lawn closed for eight months after the concert.
You are correct Sam and I’m angry as hell!!!!!
I’m not for this organization at all as well. I think Global Citizens Festival should be outlawed. It’s a big rip off.
Where do they get the privilege of using our backyard and devastating it like they did. There was three days prior to the event of downpour, drenching rain, and it should’ve been canceled instead they open up when Central Park received almost 3 to 4 inches of rain that day.
Common sense!!!!!
It is closed every year for winter – this caused it to close a bit earlier. I think we’ll live.
Agree the festival should not be held on the Great Lawn. Too much damage.
Here, here! I agree, you can count my vote-
No Global Citizens Festival!
“It is worth noting that the Great Lawn does close normally from mid-to-late November through April to let the lawn rest each year, but the green space had to be shuttered immediately following the Global Citizen concert on September 23” – West Side Rag article on October 3rd
https://www.westsiderag.com/2023/10/03/large-section-of-great-lawn-closed-until-at-least-april-following-damage-from-global-citizen-festival