Central Park Summerstage Announces Full Schedule; Expands Beyond Manhattan

The City Parks Foundation announced the 2010 Central Park SummerStage schedule, and it has some big things planned for the 25th anniversary of the free-concerts program. For one thing, it's expanding beyond its home in Central Park. As the schedule says, the Foundation has "launched a major re-branding of the festival to include music, dance, film and theater performances in all five boroughs."

The 2010 SummerStage season begins on Tuesday, June 1st with a show by jazz-pop singer Melody Gardot and the New York Pops in Central Park. The full 2010 SummerStage schedule in PDF form is available now; the SummerStage Web site doesn't yet have all the dates filled in (it says it is launching the new Web site on May 15th).

While most of the shows are free (such as all of the ones below), there are also a number of great benefit shows that support the free programs. Some of the artists doing SummerStage benefit shows are The Black Keys, Gov't Mule, Pavement, and the John Butler Trio (these are listed in the SummerStage schedule PDF, too).

Shows on weekday evenings usually start between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; weekend shows are 3 or 4 p.m.

Among the free shows on this year's program (see the complete SummerStage schedule for full listing and descriptions):

* Wed., 6/2: Roy Ayers with DJ Jon Quick (Betsy Head Park, Brooklyn)
* Sat., 6/5 Living Colour, Ebony Bones!, Pillow Theory, and CX KiDTRONiK: 25th anniv. of Black Rock Coalition (Central Park)
* Thurs., 6/10: Hezekiah Walker (Von King Park, Brooklyn)
* Wed., 6/16: Big Daddy Kane with DJ Jon Quick (Von King Park, Brooklyn)
* Thurs., 6/17: The Felix Hernandez Rhythm Review (Betsy Head Park, Brooklyn)
* Sat., 6/26: Tinariwen, Omar Souleyman, and Toubab Krewe (Central Park)
* Wed., 6/30: Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Central Park)
* Sun., 7/11: Jimmy Cliff, Trevor Hall, and Victor Démé (Central Park)
* Thurs., 7/15: EPMD and Funkmaster Flex (Queensbridge Park)
* Wed., 7/21: Comedy Central Park: The Daily Show and Friends. Hosted by Lewis Black with John Oliver, Rob Riggle, Wyatt Cenac, Adam Lowitt, and Rory Albanese (Central Park)
* Fri., 7/23: The Main Ingredient with Cuba Gooding Sr. (Rochdale Park, Brooklyn)
* Sun., 8/1: St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, and Basia Bulat (Central Park)
* Thurs., 8/5: Gil Scott-Heron (Marcus Garvey Park)
* Sun., 8/8: The xx, Chairlift, and Jack Peñate (Central Park)
* Wed., 8/11: Doug E. Fresh and DJ Dee Wiz (Jackie Robinson Park)
* Sun., 8/15: Public Enemy with 7th Octave and Blitz the Ambassador (Central Park)
* Thurs., 8/19: Our Latin Thing with DJ Lucho: A Tribute to The Fania All-Stars (East River Park)
* Sat., 8/28: The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival featuring McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Scott, Jason Moran, and the Bandwagon and Revive da Live: Charlie Parker Revisited (Marcus Garvey Park)