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Calvert Vaux Park - 8:15 PM Pick
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Camp - 11:00 AM
Children's Museum of Manhattan - various times Pick
Camp - 11:00 AM
Bensonhurst Park - 8:15 PM Pick
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Summer Solstice Celebrations and Make Music New York City 2010
Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Also called Midsummer, (as in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night's Eve), the summer solstice has been celebrated around the world since neolithic times with traditions that are now a mix of Pagan and Christian rituals.
When I was a kid there used to be a Summer Solstice Celebration in Riverside Park that we attended every year which involved staying up all night long making music. It was one of the quirky, artsy things that I was lucky to experience growing up in NYC.
Today there are slightly less out there ways to celebrate the Solstice that still capture the sense of freedom, revelry, and hapenstance of those magical celebrations and truly are only in NYC events and are the types of cool events that your children will remember for the rest of their lives.
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Make Music New York 2010
On Monday, June 21, 2010 hundreds of free, impromptu musical concerts and experiences will be hapening all over NYC as this huge annual music making event takes over the city for the first day of summer. Some of the highlights include 6 interactive musical experiences in the Meat Packing District, a percussion performance where the audience sits in rowboats in the Central Park Lake, a puppet performance of Xenakis' opera Oresteia at the Central Park Swedish Marrionette Theater, and Mass Appeal. Mass Appeal is a series of concerts all over the city that any one can in on. Each one is designed for a single type of instrument , so pull out your accordian, trombone, or even your iPhone and get in on the music making yourself.
Also as part of Make Music NY will be 60 pianos that will be placed on the streets of NYC. They will be performed on all day on June 21st and then left there for any and all to play on through July 5th. Find out where the free pianos will be.
Of course ,this is just a sample of some of the events. There will be hundreds of performances in every corner of the city so whether you spend the day out with your toddler or take the family out for an after-dinner stroll, don't miss out on this amazing event that your children will surely remember for years to come. All performances are free.
Summer Solstice Celebration at Socrates Sculpture Park
From 5-9pm on Monday June 21, 2010 there will be free music, dance, kids artmaking workshops, and a solstice ritual performed by Urban Shaman Mama Donna (one of the original solstice celebrators from my childhood) at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens. Bring your picnic or buy food from Wunderbar German Grill and Bierhaus and celebrate the first day of summer outdoors as the sun sets over Manhattan. FREE
Swedish Midsummer Festival
In Sweden the Midsummer is as big a deal as Christmas and the Swedish Midsummer Celebration in NYC is the largest Midsummer festival in America with over 3000 attendants every year. The celebration takes place on Friday, June 25, 2010 in Battery Park City's Robert F Wagner, Jr Park from 5-8pm. Adults and children will decorate a midsummer pole, make flower wreaths, play traditional Swedish games and dance to fiddle music. There will be Swedish food for purchase, but otherwise the event is free.
