Jose Conde

Courtesy of Summerstage

This mother of all music festivals, held smack in the middle of Central Park, may be the single best thing about summer in the city. As always, this year’s multiculti lineup features top acts from around the world. The venue reaches capacity quickly, with the bleacher seats filling up first, followed by prime spots on the AstroTurf. Bring a blanket to claim your space; doors open 90 minutes before showtime on weekends. Getting there can be a schlep, so try to travel light; enter the park at East 69th Street or West 72nd Street, and then just follow the noise. Subway: B, C to 72nd St; 6 to 68th St–Hunter College.

Download a printable map of this venue.

Bathrooms Portable toilets at the venue

Food Two concession stands sell beef and veggie burgers, hot dogs and drinks (including beer and wine!).

DON’T MISS

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Courtesy of Summerstage

Global Family Day
Sun, Jul 13
3pm
Headlining is Big Nazo, an international group of visual artists, puppeteers and masked musicians who present strange and comical characters, play rock and funk tunes, and lead the audience in improv exercises. Baby Loves Salsa showcases singer-songwriter Jose Conde in a bilingual performance of Cuban and Afro-Latin music. At 2:15pm, before the main stage show begins, puppeteers from the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre will gather on the field to perform Cinderella Samba, an updated version of the classic fairy tale that finds the enchanted heroine and her prince in a dance contest at the Carnival Ball in Brazil.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Sun, Aug 17
3pm
The Brooklyn-based Jones—whose James Brown–esque sizzle can be heard on Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black—funks it up better than anyone in town. Here’s hoping her backing band, the Dap-Kings, will play a few tracks from their latest release, 100 Days, 100 Nights, a collection of jazzy, ’60s-style tunes. Also on this killer bill are the soul group Menahan Street Band (led by Jones’s guitarist, Tom Brenneck) and Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, a bluesy Brooklyn group.

Los Lobos

Courtesy of Summerstage

Los Lonely Boys + Los Lobos
Thu, Aug 14
7pm
While not specifically intended for kids, this Latin-rock double bill will appeal to all ages. The three brothers of Los Lonely Boys won a 2005 Grammy for Best Pop Performance with their song “Heaven.” East Los Angeles’s Los Lobos, who have been around since the 1970s, found mainstream success after covering several Ritchie Valens tunes for the 1987 film La Bamba.

ALSO PLAYING

Vampire Weekend + Kid Sister + Ecstatic Sunshine
Sat, Jun 14
3pm
Vampire Weekend only sounds goth; the four preppy Columbia alumni describe their mix of African pop and Western classical music as “Upper West Side Soweto.” Joining them, Kid Sister raps about manicures and beepers against club beats, and the two-man band Ecstatic Sunshine rounds out the afternoon with laid-back electronica.

Victor Manuelle
Sun, Jun 15
3pm
If your kids dig Dan Zanes’s new Spanish album, introduce them to this young master of salsa romántica, who had a cameo role as Rubén Blades in the Jennifer Lopez flick El Cantante.

Rachid Taha + Dengue Fever + Apollo Heights
Sat, Jul 5
3pm
If we’re lucky, Paris-based Rachid Taha—whose music merges raï, techno and punk—will sing his Arabic-language cover of the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah.” Dengue Fever, from L.A., turns out rock tunes influenced by Cambodian pop. And local group Apollo Heights mixes driving beats and hypnotic electronica that will either mesmerize kids or put them to sleep.