The Recs: Outdoor Music Venues in NYC
Get in tune with the best places to see a show in NYC this summer.
Much like Frampton in 1976, New York City in the summer comes alive. The days are long, and that’s a beautiful thing, a fantastic excuse to spend hours beach-hopping in The Rockaways, fire up a grill somewhere with friends, or finally make that excursion to the wonders of Coney Island. But another treasured tradition emerges from this warmest season, and we’re not talking cicadas. Summer in the city means outdoor concerts galore.
NYC’s connection to music is long, storied, inextricable, and a million other adjectives. It only makes sense this sprawling metropolis would further secure that link with a list of summer outdoor concerts — many of which are free — longer than the line at Katz’s. For the folk connoisseurs, the indie tastemakers, the jazz heads, and everyone in between and beyond, here are our picks for the city’s top venues to concert al fresco.
Prospect Park
With its annual BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! festival, Prospect Park puts on a summer-long series of spectacular shows that rock Park Slope. In fact, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! is the city’s longest-running free performing arts festival. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers flock to the Lena Horne Bandshell, host for countless outdoor concerts dating to Benny Goodman’s and Cab Calloway’s heydays. Many of these shows are free, undoubtedly a key allure for prospective concert-goers. Each year, there are also a few ticketed benefit shows whose proceeds help support future gratis programming.
Open the season in a groove helmed by the propulsive percussion of Sheila E. (June 4), feel the rhythm as you dance the night away with Wayne Wonder (June 20), or reascend the peak of 90s R&B during a tribute to Brooklyn’s own, the late great Aaliyah (August 8) — all for the low, low price of time well spent. Benefit concerts include an electric evening with the icon Patti LaBelle (June 26) and a jagged jolt of anthemic alt-rock from co-headliners Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney (September 19).
Central Park
Since its 1986 founding, Central Park’s SummerStage Festival at Rumsey Playfield has become a beloved seasonal ritual. Central Park’s enduring aura becomes that much more alluring when you add live music to the mix. Like its verdant Kings County sibling, Central Park’s roster of summer musical guests divides between free and benefit offerings. The City Parks Foundation organizes SummerStage, as well as free events across the five boroughs at greenspaces such as Herbert Von King Park in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, and Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.
Even in year 40, the SummerStage programming slate remains a sonic mosaic showing no signs of falling behind the times. On the free end of things, you can stop by Rumsey Playfield on a given night and tap into indie rock zeitgeist with Black Country, New Road (June 24), journey beyond jazz’s bounds courtesy of Shabaka (July 1), or whistle while you don’t work alongside Andrew Bird (August 6). Ticketed benefit shows are similarly eclectic, encompassing the rapturous deep house beats of Nora En Pure (July 10), the finest 90s rock radio hits by Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms, and Spin Doctors (August 15), folk-infused pop earworms from Myles Smith (August 25), and so much more.
Aside from SummerStage, Central Park is due to host the Good Morning America Summer Concert Series and the 2026 Global Citizen Festival in the warmer months to come.
The Rooftop at Pier 17
If you’ve ever wanted to pair sunset views with an outdoor concert experience, you’ll find no better spot to do so. The Rooftop at Pier 17 sits on the South Street Seaport waterfront in Lower Manhattan and peers east toward the always picturesque Brooklyn Bridge.
Pier 17’s fun has already begun as the weather’s been warming, but there is still plenty of summer left and numerous great concerts to go. Ascend to this seaside upper deck to revel in 25 years of the Jimmy Eat World hit factory Bleed American (June 17), start believing once and for all in the power of the trombone with Trombone Shorty (July 15), plant your flag in the lyrically rich country folk of Jesse Welles (July 31), or take a nostalgia trip down 1980s Lane with the Totally Tubular Festival (featuring Thomas Dolby, A Flock of Seagulls, and more, August 9).
Forest Hills Stadium
Some of the most important names in music and tennis history have performed at Forest Hills Stadium. Whether it was The Beatles or Arthur Ashe, Diana Ross or Billie Jean King, Frank Sinatra or Chris Evert (and oh so many others), this Neoclassical arena was a prestigious center stage — and court. Eagle-eyed cinephiles also might recognize the setting from scenes in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train or Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, the latter immortalized by a plaque and pair of sneakers hanging on one of the stadium’s many stone pillars.
This year, the Grand Slam champions are taking serve. With no disrespect to any other venue, the summer lineup at Forest Hills is, conservatively speaking, insane, composing a multi-generational group of someone’s biggest name imaginable.
Unquestionably, the tip-top of that list is shared by two of our greatest living songwriters: Paul Simon (July 7–8) and Bob Dylan (July 21). However, a quick peek at the rest of the calendar will also reveal the Dave Matthews Band (June 10), Yo La Tengo opening for Wilco (June 20), De La Soul opening for Erykah Badu (September 18), David Byrne (September 19), two nights of the Zac Brown Band (August 27–28), two nights of Hayley Williams (September 16–17), and, of course, multiple performances by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (August 20–22). And that‘s the shortened version!
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
The largest park in Queens — number four by size in all of NYC — has a whole lot going on across its nearly 900 acres. It’s home to the New York Mets and tennis’s U.S. Open, the Queens Museum, the Queens Zoo, and the New York Hall of Science. Flushing Meadows was also the site of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, still bearing the iconic Unisphere and New York State Pavilion to prove it. Cuisine-minded New Yorkers adore the park this time of year for the equally spirited and delicious Queens Night Market.
Verdant environs plus top-tier performers make Flushing Meadows a must-visit for music fans this summer. The three-day Governors Ball will grace the grounds again from June 5–7. Top-line acts for this edition of the long-running city-based festival include Lorde, A$AP Rocky, and Kali Uchis, with the undercard full of must-see acts like Katseye, Blood Orange, Wet Leg, Geese (also playing Forest Hills in October), Clipse, and many more. Fold in Citi Field as part of the broader park’s concert offerings, and more heavy hitters take the plate than a Mets–Yankees Subway Series: a double-header of Noah Kahan on July 18–19, powerhouse Música Mexicana de Fuerza Regida on August 7, and fiery theatricality from My Chemical Romance (with Franz Ferdinand) on August 9.
