SummerStage is turning 40, and to mark it, the festival is offering New Yorkers with $5,000 to spare the chance to bolt their name onto a VIP seat in its Central Park home. The pitch landed in an August 3 email from City Parks Foundation, the nonprofit that produces the free concert series.
Here’s the deal. A $5,000 contribution buys a personalized plaque on a seat in the Terrace lounge at the flagship Central Park venue. According to City Parks Foundation, the plaque can proclaim your love for SummerStage, honor a loved one, or mark a moment that matters to you. The gift is fully tax deductible, and the foundation says a limited number of seats remain.
The money is the point. SummerStage is free to attend, but not free to produce, and City Parks Foundation says every show depends on donors to keep it running. The organization frames the campaign as a way to secure the future of what it calls New York’s largest free outdoor performing arts festival, and to keep it free for future generations.
For scale on what that $5,000 is propping up: City Parks Foundation says SummerStage has reached more than seven million New Yorkers across all five boroughs over four decades. This summer’s lineup runs from Jon Batiste to Patti Smith to Soccer Mommy, the names the foundation dropped in its own appeal as examples of the artists the donations pay for.
SummerStage does not only happen in Central Park. The festival stages shows across the boroughs, and Brooklyn crowds have caught it up close this year, including an Anjunadeep dance party and an August 19 bill with Simple Plan, 3OH!3 and Bowling for Soup. The naming plaques, though, are only for VIP seats at the Central Park flagship.
City Parks Foundation describes itself as an independent nonprofit that runs sports, arts, community and education programming in hundreds of parks, recreation centers and public schools across the city. Its ethos, per the email: thriving parks mean thriving communities.
The foundation did not say how many seats are up for grabs, whether there is a deadline to claim one, or exactly where the Terrace lounge sits inside the venue. People who want the specifics, or a seat, can reach the foundation at [email protected] or reserve on the name-a-seat page.
Featured image: Courtesy cityparksfoundation.org
