Summer 2014 Waterfront Concert Series in Astoria Park

Astoria Music & Arts presents a festival September 6th called ASTORIA MUSIC NOW! BETWEEN 2 BRIDGES, featuring local bands playing original music. GIFTSHOP is playing this year and they are terrific http://www.reverbnation.com/giftshop. Also: Jump For The Sails http://www.reverbnation.com/jfts and The Missing Teens http://themissingteens.com/

Here is a link to entity that organizes it – around since 1979. http://centralastoria.org/

Astoria still has a ton of retirees here. Also, as has been posted Astoria Park is surrounded by dense concentrations of residential buildings and very little commercial stuff going on. Finally it is an area that generally likes things low key and often work to keep the park quieter and cleaner – accepting some exceptions such as the Fourth of July celebrations. Astoria and generally the 114th Precinct is one of the most populated in the city – over 200,000 people (see nyc crime map)

There are other options – Why not Rainey Park or Socrates Sculpture? Rainey really could use the concert, it is underutilized but practically across from Noguchi and south of Broadway, the LIC Trolley could do an extra run for the festival. Socrates is a no-brainer and the beach, Hallets Cove, and Welling Court Murals+community garden nearby give a nice artsy urban panache. Rainey has one advantage – further away from residential buildings – major disadvantage a little off the beaten path for visitors.

Also, some of the bands that I have heard in Brooklyn have an issue with overly loud basses which rattle your whole damn skeleton. Not fun.

But yes, I agree there are far TOO many cover bands. The Gantries concert series does a far better job showcasing local and international music acts. One way to change this is to get involved with the Central Astoria Business Alliance – join them and suggest a New Pop festival.

In sum 1) Alternative more music friendly venues: Rainey Park, Socrates — and I forgot, Queensbridge Park all great for a daytime or early eve new pop music fest. 2) Join Central Astoria Alliance if you want to update the line-up of acts for next year 3) Remember Astoria is an extremely polyglot place, possibly one of the most contrasting areas of NYC – for this reason, it is hard to expect concerts of popular indie bands for a whole afternoon.

Finally it is FREE, think of how exclusionary some residents feel when there is a huge cool concert with a $50 ticket price or more and they cannot afford it but they have to deal with crowds, noise, and litter.

Wow, that is a super sad list of performers. Happy for them to get the work, know that some will enjoy them, BUT – who programs this series? Is there no way for that opportunity to be made more of then this??

While true, those concerts in Brooklyn aren’t free (I paid close to $50 to see the National). But most importantly, they have a bandshell there and the infrastructure to support 5-10,000 people to attend. If there were suddenly that many people in Astoria Park, I imagine there might be a few complaints.

I totally agree. None of this is my taste, but does *anyone* in Astoria want to see a doowop band or a Ray Charles tribute? Astoria is not a retirement community (anymore).

Um… Brooklyn gets Janelle Monae, The National, Jack Johnson… and we get the bands that play for free on the subway?

C’mon Astoria. It’s time to expect more of ourselves…