By Gus Saltonstall
A portion of the Great Lawn in Central Park closed on Sunday in preparation for the upcoming Global Citizen Festival.
The area, which is the space primarily at the north end of the lawn and baseball fields 7 and 8, will remain closed through October 2, a spokesperson for the Central Park Conservancy confirmed to West Side Rag. The spokesperson also confirmed that the “large ticketed event” is the Global Citizen Festival set to take place Saturday on the Great Lawn.
“The Conservancy schedules extra days for closure post-event to let the lawn rest and recover,” the spokesperson added to the Rag in an email.
The Global Citizen Festival, an annual concert to support people in need, is returning to Central Park for its 12th year in 2024, and will be headlined by Post Malone, Doja Cat, Jelly Roll, Hugh Jackman, and Dr. Jane Goodall.
Last year, the Great Lawn was damaged on the day of the concert, when Tropical Storm Ophelia blew through the city and turned the grass to mud.
As a result, the Great Lawn closed for the winter season around a month-and-a-half earlier than normal.
The green space reopened in April on schedule following $622,000 in repairs, which was initially funded by the Central Park Conservancy, and then reimbursed in full by Global Citizen. If there is damage this year, Global Citizen will again be expected to pay the bill.
In terms of possible rain this weekend, Tropical Storm Helene that is expected to hit Florida on Wednesday is not expected to then make its way to New York City, but there is now a small chance of rain forecasted for the city on Saturday and Sunday.
There is no rain date for the Global Citizen Festival.
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I’m just here for the comments….
LOL! Let’s hope it doesn’t rain !
It’s gonna rain three days at least this week
Love it Ish your the best lol
The main headliners all have tattoos on their faces. This is going to be trashhhy….
Great analysis. Knowing that, I’ll certainly reconsider going, lol.
ah yes, the Global Citizen Festival, where Global Citizens literally destroy the beauty of Central Park where Global Citizens congregate to celebrate Global Citizens.
It’s closed after they destroy and now before they destroy it.
This is quite literally exactly what they have done every year for the last twelve years. The north end lawn closes starting the week before to set the stage up. This is not a new timeline.
It’s the closing of much more than the lawns that ticks me off. Fences all around the park that makes a big mess for New Yorkers on the weekend
Will it be possible to take crosstown bus through the pari?
I couldn’t find any planned service changes but here’s the MTA link if you’d like to check closer to the date of the event. https://new.mta.info/alerts?selectedRoutes=
It seems odd to me that Hugh Jackman is hosting considering the lineup. I’ve never been to one of these concerts, so I have a genuine question. Is it mainly NYers attending or do people come from all over the country?
I am over the Global Grift, the loss of our park, the damage to the great lawn, speeding teamsters and officials in golf carts kicking dust in our faces, and noisy broadcast equipment invading our neighborhoods. Enough is enough. It’s been too many years. We’ve done our part for this charity that mainly seems to fund its officials huge salaries.
And their vehicles parked in bike lanes
” If there is damage this year, Global Citizen will again be expected to pay the bill.” Right. Like if I rent a venue fir a party and cause damage I will have to foot the bill to fix it. But this isn’t just about money . It’s about a part of the park being closed before the festival, for the festival, and potentially for months after the festival.
Does Global Citizen have to post a bond for the concert and potential costs to repair? If not I would not be confident there would be a check forthcoming in the event the organization decides its grift has gone as far as it’s going and disbands.
Well, they do have history of repairing the damage, but some folks choose to ignore that fact.
Nobody is ignoring that fact. People objecting to:
A) losing access to this part of the park(during the nicest park weather of the year) for extended amount of time
and
B) the need to have to repair it at all.
The fact that that an organization whose aim is to “supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals” needs to damage a green space on an annual basis is beyond hypocritical. Similarly hypocritical is the fact that an organization that aspires to be “global” has to have this event in the same location every year.
This is more public space being ceded to a private company. I think people have right to say “enough is enough.”
It’s like how all the sanctimonious climate change scolds traverse the globe in their private jets, going from their multiple mansions to various opulent resorts in Davos and Monaco, chauffeured in huge SUVs, to lecture us “little people” about our too-large carbon footprints!
Fair points.
True indeed – and people also ignore the fact that the Great Lawn is closed during the winter months and a tropical storm happened to hit during last year’s concert (which was a significant factor in the amount of damage).
If’n I rent my apartment to a tenant who [literally] destroys my apartment, even if’n they pay for the clean up/renovation…you think in my right mind I’ma fixin to rent to that tenant one mo’ gain? I say ban these hoodlums from my park based on evidence of how they can’t be peaceful tenants.
Can you share with us your reasoning for referring to them as “hoodlums”? I guess I fail to see it.
The question is: who has the authority to stop this? Gale? Mayor Adams? The Parks Conservancy? Whose decision was this (and don’t tell me it was a committee)
Mayor Adams is tied up…oops, I mean, busy.
Again? They’re gonna shred the lawn like last year for….what exactly?
Ah yes….all the virtuous people who care about the environment while leaving massive Starbucks, Sweetgreen and pizza trash….
https://www.showbiz411.com/2024/07/08/exclusive-global-citizen-chief-got-36-raise-in-2022-revenue-fell-by-26-most-money-went-to-europe-north-america-not-third-world
This is not about money and how Global Citizens Festival can pay off the City of New York and Central Park Conservancy to fix it!
It’s about “OUR” Great Lawn being closed to our taxpayers and our UPPER WEST/EAST SIDE neighbors and kids before the festival and after it, for the festival in 2024 potentially for almost 9 months after the festival to repair it!
This is unfair to the neighbors on both the east and west side of Manhattan and the visitors who come here to enjoy the pearl of Central Park “The Great Lawn!
Enough of The Global Citizens Festival let them find another place to have their event, but not “OUR” Great Lawn!!!!
That is factually incorrect. It was not closed for “9 months after the festival to repair it”. It was closed for a 5 or 6 weeks to repair, and remained closed for the winter (like it is every year). I fail to see the big deal.
6 weeks of the nicest park weather of the year? By the way 6 weeks is 11.5 percent of the entire year.
You may fail to see the big deal but I think you might be in the extreme minority.
The loss of the use of a large amount of public space for 2 weeks for a private event is a big deal if the GCF are not compensating the city, or at least the Conservancy, in some way beyond just paying for damage.
Obviously they are paying the city for use of the park. That should be fairly clear.
In your opinion closing for the season five or six weeks early because a private event damaged the lawn is OK? The tropical storm would not have caused so much damage had the grounds not been torn up. I don’t know if you noticed, but as referenced hereinabove there is not all that much open space on the UWS/UES to enjoy.
Not all that much open space to enjoy? Central Park is 843 acres.
I’d actually convined myself that this had already happened, alas. Just find an indoor venue like literally every other musical act.
What NYC charities are beneficiaries of Global Citizens’ concerts? Let’s see the list, and see if they are actually supporting our many neighbors in need?
I wish the Global Citizens events were held on some other globe.
Grift is the word for this self-aggrandizing and self-dealing organization – which is all spelled out in their annual report. Who approved the lease? More importantly, who gets to approve it? It’s abusive and their annual occupation needs to end.
Ish Kabibble!!!!
You’re being very selfish!!
Billy Amato is right!!!
It doesn’t matter to you, but it matters to me and my family that the great lawn was shut down so early in the season in 2023!!! And then I have to look at this nonsense of construction going on through the spring and finding out all the repairs are not completed because most the sod did not take to the ground and has to be replaced now this season and the great long will have to be shut down after this event for 2023 repairs not corrected, who’s gonna pay for that?
Not sure why WSR chose to sensor my last comment, but I’ll try again. You may think I’m being selfish, but considering tens of thousands of people attend this event every year tells me that the few who rail against it are the selfish ones.
Do you really believe a small neighborhood blog is an accurate sample size for asserting “the few who rail against it”?
Do you really believe tens of thousands of attendees, every single year, is not an accurate sample size for support of the event?
The music entertainment is loud and trash and this whole organization “Global Citizens Festival”is old hat and nonsense.It should be demolished and never let into the Great Lawn ever again. It’s a total waste of time and much damage to our beautiful park!
They should be ban !!
I’ve always thought this organization(Global Citizen) to be suspect. From their wikipedia entry:
The organization researches and selects causes to support, and then suggests actions for its members to take in support of those causes.This can include sending tweets to organizations like the United Nations in support of reducing pollution, signing petitions to support gender equality, sending pre-written emails to politicians to increase international aid, or providing rewards to encourage people to get involved.
So they basically send tweets and emails?
Literally the only time you ever hear about them during the year is because of this festival.
Joel Ginser I’m replying to your post, unfortunately the the iPhone you cannot reply on this app.
You’re correct that’s how they run this organization and who knows where they get their donations from, so weird they can’t get the hint that they’re not wanted by the citizens the of the UES and UWS of Manhattan! 👎
How about an article on global citizen’s benefits to the world and their costs? I’ve looked at their tax forms and most of the money that they do donate goes to Europe (2.5 million out of the 40+ million they say they use for charity, 400k for Africa). Let’s see some real journalism on WSR. Seriously I can write the article for you with facts with direct sources in 20 minutes.
And the CPW bike lane is full of double parked vehicles – some temporary cones to seem to try and make a bike lane that have of course been knocked over – dangerous