UPDATE: Friday, September 25 at 2:30 p.m.: Global Citizen has canceled its festival set for Saturday in Central Park, the organization announced on Friday.
“Due to the extreme weather forecast for New York City this weekend, we have made the difficult decision, in consultation with the City of New York and NYC Parks, to cancel this year’s Global Citizen Festival,” reads a message on the organization’s website. “Forecasts predict dangerous conditions and circumstances in which we cannot safely bring tens of thousands of Global Citizens, artists, crew, vendors, partners, and staff onto the Great Lawn, let alone all of the equipment required. Safety has to come first. This is the first time in 14 years we’ve had to cancel. We have spent this week working through countless contingencies, which were ultimately not possible, and cancelling is a decision we have not taken lightly.”
In the cancellation message, Global Citizen highlighted that people took 3.5 million actions through its organization in the last six weeks that secured $208.8 million in financial commitments for humanitarian causes across the world.
The cancellation comes after worries over what would happen to the Great Lawn if the festival did take place during the rainstorm expected this weekend.
If you purchased tickets to the festival, refunds will be processed automatically. If you made a donation to secure your ticket, you can make a request to have that refunded as well.
By Gus Saltonstall
There is a storm coming.
A powerful nor’easter is forecast to hit the East Coast in the coming days, including New York City. Strong winds began to make their way through the five boroughs on Wednesday.
As of Thursday, there is a 25 percent chance of rain on Friday and a 94 percent chance of rain on Saturday in the city, according to AccuWeather. Apple’s weather app is forecasting more than 2 inches of rain on Saturday.
The storm is notable in and of itself, but is given extra significance due to a major event happening Saturday in Central Park.
The Global Citizen Festival is set to begin at 4 p.m. on the Great Lawn. More than 50,000 people are expected to attend.
Rain is forecast to begin around 3 p.m. that day.
In 2023, the Great Lawn was badly damaged when the Global Citizen Festival coincided with Tropical Storm Ophelia, which caused more than $600,000 in damage and closed the lawn to the public almost two months earlier than its standard winter shuttering.
There is no rain date for the festival.
Upper West Side Councilmember Gale Brewer, who is a longtime proponent of moving the Global Citizen Festival elsewhere, sent a letter on Wednesday to the Mayor’s Office, New York City Parks Department, and Central Park Conservancy.
“Every year, I write to the Mayor to complain about granting a permit to Global Citizen for their use of the Great Lawn in Central Park,” Brewer wrote. “A nor’easter storm is expected this weekend. The last time that a storm hit the same day as the Global Citizen concert, the event went forward, and the Great Lawn was destroyed.
“After much press attention, the concert promoters paid for the restoration, but the Great Lawn was out of commission for months,” she added. “The promoters said, ‘It is closed anyway for the winter.’ No, it was not winter yet.”
Brewer highlighted Randall’s Island as a better spot for the concert.
In preparation for the concert, the Great Lawn has been closed to the public since September 21. It will also be closed from September 27 through at least October 2, depending on its condition after the concert.
A spokesperson from the Parks Department told West Side Rag the following, when asked about the coming storm and whether there was a chance the concert would be called off.
“We’re aware of the current weather forecast and, as with every large-scale event, we continuously monitor weather conditions in coordination with our sister agencies and event partners,” the spokesperson said. The agency did not confirm whether there was a chance the concert would be postponed.
Global Citizen Festival raises money for humanitarian causes across the world and will be headlined this year by Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, and Shaboozey.
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You already covered this so many times. Maybe wait for the “news” to happen before writing about it?
Speaking from my neighbors and my neighborhood we are so happy that Global Citizens is canceled this weekend.
We don’t want them back here. They are not welcomed here on the upper west side after what they did in 2023.
Never did like them….‼️
Well at least you put your bias out there first.
But, what about the Macy’s parade? That’s commercial? How about the Marathon?
But that will be too late.
So, instead of waiting for the news to happen and then report on it, let’s just let our wild bad dreams run rampant and predict the outcome. Is that how “journalism” happens in your world?
So when something bad has happened before and the conditions are all in place for it to happen again, we should wait for it to happen again?
This is not the place for weather predictions. It’s the place to report what happens AFTER. That’s more interesting!
A weather prediction from the Westside Rag will surely be less accurate than a report from a BUNCH of meteorologists, when you add all of them together. LOL.
Surely the place for weather predictions is Mamdani’s Twitter account.
Where do you think the Rag gets its weather predictions from? I doubt they have a staff meteorologist and must depend, like the rest of us, on that professional BUNCH of which you speak.
Consider it a public serice — forewarned is forearmed.
The WSR reports on other weather related stories. A heat wave is coming here is a list of cooling centers. A hurricane is coming get the following items ready in case you lose powers. Have you complained about those stories as well?
She probably has!
Maybe they should just have a mud wrestling competition?
Great so now the Global Citizen Festival will make an even greater mess than when Mother Nature herself messes up the Great Lawn.
BINGO!
Randall’s Island is a great idea
Rikers Island.
Rhode Island.
Why can’t they use Metlife Stadium? The NFL schedule could surely accommodate.
If either the Jets or the Giants were to play on a Sunday it would not work to have Global Citizens the day before. The NFL has pretty rigid guidelines about other events at NFL Stadiums and when all the staging, etc. has to be cleared out by. They wouldn’t be able to get the equipment out in time.
But they could certainly hold it at MetLife on a Saturday if the Jets and Giants were on the road the next day.
seriously. there’s also a ton of space on Randall’s Island going simply unused.
Are Manhattan residents too afraid to actually do what they tell others who don’t have the privilege of living here to do and use NJ Transit to get somewhere? After all for Randall’s Island events, you all get the MTA to run a special X80 bus to take you there so you all don’t have to ride with the people you want to avoid on the M35 bus.
yes, that’s it. We’re too afraid. 🙄
Manhattan has a big chauvinism problem!
yes, that’s it. We has a big chauvinism problem. 🙄
I live across the street it’s a horrible event total neighborhood invasion & rude security & other support equipment suppliers get rid of it ..who really gets any of the funds raised ??
What’s wild is that they set up all the barricades and start closing things off so people can’t walk in the park a week before. And now with this weather report, I hope this isn’t another situation where the great lawn is closed off for a year again
The great lawn was not closed for a year. Lets get that straight.
I thought the concert wasn’t going to be permitted anymore. When I saw the equipment being unloaded I was very disappointed. Hopefully this is the last concert
That’s alright, there are too many outdoor festivals and demonstrations these days
Central Park in the mud would be a great place for another Woodstock though!!! Authentic! Yah:)
Everyday the Great Lawn is closed the estimated economic and recreational value cost to NYC is approximately $46,000. Localized event revenue losses have been estimated to be $1.5 million.
please explain how. there is zero commerce on the great lawn
It has nothing to do with direct commerce occurring in the great lawn
Economic and recreational value of the space such as loss of athletic fields and recreation access.
For example if the great lawn is closed you lose access to the ball fields. There is a replacement value cost.
Less foot traffic also affects vendors, restaurants etc. 1,000s of people visit the great lawn daily. there are other events it is more like 25,000 to 50,000 those people are most likely spending money in the area. $46K is probably a low number of economic and recreational
value.
.
The “Central Park Effect”: According to studies by the Central Park Conservancy, proximity to Central Park landmarks like the Great Lawn adds billions to Manhattan real estate market values and generates hundreds of millions in annual property tax revenue
NY Park Trust also valued the. opportunity costs of closure. Every component of the use of the great lawn has a recreational value and also indirectly an impact on local commerce.
“Global Citizen” alone is enough of an eye-roll. Ugh.
This seems to be a recurring problem with this concert! Maybe they should move it to a different venue.
There goes the lawn and the whole area of the park throughout the Fall season. UGH. They KNOW this will ruin the Great Lawn. This is not a question, but a certainty. And yet they go ahead with it, knowing that it will affect MILLIONS of people?? Where’s the city???
Perhaps a different venue in a different country. It’s “global” after all.
I would do anything for Shaboozey!!
The best of the lot!
So relieved to hear there is no rain date. Every year the booming noise that goes on for hours is an assault on all neighborhood residents.
This annual event always causes great disruption and destruction. They must find an alternative venue. One can only hope that wisdom prevails and the event is canceled this year and moved elsewhere in the future.
Not to state the obvious, but wet weather + big crowds means the Great Lawn is going to be completely ruined.
What does Global Citizen pay to the Central Park Conservancy? What does the
Conservancy net after repairs? In other words, where does the money go? Is this a big boondoggle?
New rule: All concert goers are required to bring with them 4 square feet of new sod
According to the NY Post, the concert has been cancelled!
Yes, it’s very true. Our great mayor has canceled them… joy to the world…. joy to the UWS.
Thank God🙏 we hope they never return again‼️
So much for all the doomscrolling going on here!
There is a God!
And she is clutching her pearls, afraid of the dark…
How dare they play music in the park!
I love music in the park, and I miss the Lincoln Center, Philharmonic Orchestra in June of every year.
That’s real music…. Now that they have taken another route in our journey through life. Time marches on🙏
Globalfest is just a bunch of noise, a non-profit organization that no one knows where the money is going to. But very highly well knowin CEOs making a bundle 💲💲💲
We didn’t cancel Woodstock.
The Great Lawn can be resodded. Did you know that professional football fields are resodded three to five times a year.
You really don’t understand
🫵👎👎👎👎
Sure, and when they resod it it’s closed for the rest of the remaining nice weather and none of us get to use it in autumn.
Resodding a professional football field is an expected running cost of a for-profit football team. It is not an expected cost for a non-profit such as the Central Park Conservancy, who are in charge of maintaining the park.
Bill Global Citizens
I AM JUMPING FOR JOY AND SO ARE MY NEIGHBORS THAT GLOBAL CITIZENS ARE CANCELED IN CENTRAL PARK AND HOPE NEVER TO RETURN AGAIN‼️🙏
Billy Amato, CMP
President/Chair
West 80th St. Block Assoc.
What do you think of the new 80th Street society? Seems like there’s a bunch of rivals on the street?
For someone who went to Woodstock, you’re not very fun!
Add me to the list of those thrilled the event was cancelled! And Global Citizen? Really? The headline acts are Lauren Hill who is from New Jersey, Lenny Kravitz and Alicial Keys who are from here, and John Legend who is from Ohio! Where is the global aspect? They are all just black Americans. Oh, but then they got Hugh Jackman to host, which is a whole lot of WTF. Move the event to Prospect Park. Done.
May it never return.