free events in NYC

Philharmonic Concert in Central Park

• by admin • In July Home, Travel, Where We Walkers Are •   0

Monday Night Out (July 15th)

I had this event on my calendar well before we arrived in New York. Mostly because of the movie “August Rush”   and the beautiful scene at the end… I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen the movie, but also because this event happens once a year and if over 14 million people attend you know its going to be good! I read some reviews and did my research before going and am very thankful that I did as the Great Lawn of Central Park gets packed hours before the concert begins. We arrived two hours+ before it started due to the 90 degree weather with humidity there is no way we would have been able to sit any longer than an hour or so in the sun. (as my initial plan was to spend all day in Central Park)

As you can see in the first picture behind me… the baseball diamond we were next to was basically empty…

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After a couple people sat on the dirt… it ended up like the below picture with people sitting in any tiny space they could find as the night went on…

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Even though I did not like all the people cramping our space… I LOVED the atmosphere of being able to sit in the park… the gorgeous view of the city behind us and the orchestra in front of us…playing majestic tunes.

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These were the two pieces we got to listen to! Dvořák : Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5. You can listen to them here. We left before the end and fireworks display to avoid the masses leaving the park at the same time.

 

 

Lowdown House Blues Festival

• by admin • In July Home, Travel, Where We Walkers Are •   0

BB King & Co (July 10th/11th)

Blues. I thought I knew what ‘blues’ music was… yet had no idea there were so many different ‘types’ or genres within one category. Anyways, on Wednesday and Thursday night Cordie and I made the trek to the Brookfield Plaza which was formally known as the World Trade Center… a couple hours in advance to get in line for seats. Forgetting that I am not a huge fan of lines the wait was not that fun when the actual ‘seating’ of people started LOOOONG after what was communicated. I must say though, seeing BB King and his crew in person was definitely worth it!

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BB King is now 87 years old… a great singing voice, talented at his guitar playing and LOVED to talk more during the show than do either of the previous two things. :) He was very humorous and the team of guys on stage with him were just as amazing! The crowd went wild when ‘the thrill is gone‘ started playing!

For the second night of the festival we went much later to avoid all the lines and in hopes of just seeing the Los Lonely Boys and to hear their infamous “Mamacita” which was fantastic!

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A few highlights of being at the festival was being two rows back from a commercial that was being filmed both nights in a row (the actors/actresses had the same outfits on both nights) and watching all the crazy people trying to move seats…walk towards the stage to be told to sit back down again…over and over and over.. yes I may have paid much more attention to all the people than the actual show. (guilty) And the gorgeous view of the water, the beautifully constructed buildings around us and spectacular yachts just lounging in their place.

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