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BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival
Photograph: Ryan MuirBRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival

NYC's best summer music festivals of 2023

Get the scoop on all the best summer music festivals happening this year (and don't forget the sunscreen).

Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Written by
Rossilynne Skena Culgan
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There's more than one kind of New York City music festival. The first events that come to mind might be the big-tent fests like Electric Zoo, but just as important are staple series like City Parks SummerStage and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, which keep crowds coming out to our beloved green spaces all season long. Overwhelmed by all the choices? Check out our hand-picked this guide to the very best summer music festivals hitting town this year. 

RECOMMENDED: The 100 best things to do in NYC for locals and tourists

Top summer music festivals in NYC

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June 3-September 30

The city’s most beloved free summer concert series is back with a stellar line-up featuring nearly 80 free and benefit shows in Central Park, plus neighborhood parks across the five boroughs.  

New this year is a 50th-anniversary celebration of hip-hop, and there will be even more artists featuring music from around the world. SummerStage will also bring local artists back to their roots, including Kool and the Gang in Queens and Nick Hakim in Brooklyn. 

All shows are free except the benefit concerts. Performers include Indigo Girls, Sammy Rae & The Friends, Grandmaster Flash, The Metropolitan Opera, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Garbage, Kool and the Gang, DJ Rekha, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Regina Spektor and much, much more.

Here's the full schedule and ticket info.

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May 20-September 30

A season of incredible shows is before us at Forest Hills Stadium for its 2023 Centennial season. Must-see acts include Kevin Hart, Dave Matthews Band, Soccer Mommy, Fall Out Boy, Arctic Monkeys, Duran Duran, Weezer, Future Islands, The Strokes, Angel Olsen and more. 

The new season will feature 30 music and comedy performances, representing the "most diverse and exciting list of performances yet," per concert organizers. 

Tickets to Forest Hills Stadium shows are available through AXS, but head to foresthillsstadium.com to make your purchase and find more information. 

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June 1-September 14

Bryant Park's Picnic Performances will bring the best of NYC to the stage, including the New York City Opera, Jalopy Theatre, Carnegie Hall, the Classical Theatre of Harlem and the American Symphony Orchestra.

Best of all, all 26 performances are free and open to the public. Many performances will be livestreamed for free on Bryant Park’s social media channels and website in case you can’t make it in person.

 

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  • Theater & Performance

May 2-September 29

The seasonal lineup at TSQ Live will include 80-plus free events, featuring live concerts, DJ sets, stand-up gigs and dance performances from some of the city’s most hallowed halls. 

This year's programming includes West African dance workshops taught by Ailey Extension instructors, musical performances by jazz outfits like the Curtis Brothers Quartet, sets by local DJs curated by Brooklyn-based Rash Bar, and more.

These all-ages events are free and open to the public.

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May 3-September 22

The Rooftop at Pier 17 is planning a packed summer of musical performances with more than 60 outdoor shows. 

For the fifth year of the venue's Summer Concert Series at the Seaport, they're going all out with an impressive schedule all summer long. This year's lineup includes Coheed and Cambria, Bebe Rexha, DJ Trixie Mattel, T-Pain, YUNGBLUD, Jenny Lewis, PUP, Tove Lo, Macklemore, Pixies and Modest Mouse, and many more.

  • Theater
  • Theater & Performance

June 7-September 3

The public park, which can be found floating at Pier 55 off the west side's Hudson River Park, will host DJ sets, drag bingo, dance parties, spoken word and live jazz, all held at the park's scenic stage.

Some of the talents joining Little Island's summer event calendar are Saturday Night Live cast member James Austin Johnson, Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, Grammy winners Joshua Henry and J Hoard, Emmy nominee and Joe's Pub favorite Shaina Taub, and many more.

No tickets or timed entry reservations are required to attend any of the events this summer. See the full lineup at Little Island's website.

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June 7-August 24

You can set your watch by how reliably awesome the annual BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is. Unlike SummerStage, which spreads out across the five boroughs, all BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! shows, most of which are free, take place at the beautiful bandshell in Prospect Park

This year's performers include Corinne Bailey Rae, Taj Mahal, The Wallflowers, The Head & The Heart, JOE, Kelela, Liv.e, Ali Sethi and many more.

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August 26-27

The "unapologetically fierce celebration of black culture and music' will return from noon to 10pm on Saturday and Sunday, August 26 and 27, to Brooklyn—but this time to Greenpoint’s Skyline Drive-In instead of the usual Commodore Barry Park. And this year's "Circus of Soul" themed fest—"a carnivalesque exhibition that spotlights all aspects of Black creativity,” per organizers—is bringing with it a lineup that includes headliners like R&B crooner Jazmine Sullivan and rapper-producer Flying Lotus.

Also featured on the card is New York's own Joey Bada$$, rapper Vince Staples, singer-violinist Sudan Archives, Atlanta-based artist Baby Tate, "Mango Butter” singer Durand Bernarr, multi-genre performer Dreamer Isioma and more. 

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July 21-August 25

Back for its 25th season, Warm Up will bring electronic music and DJ sets to Long Island City from 5pm to 1pm on Friday evenings from July 21 through August 25.

Programming spotlights both local artists like legendary Brooklyn-based DJ and producer Frankie Bones and New York DJ Bobby Beethoven, as well as performers from more far-flung locals, like Parisian DJ/producer Crystallmess, Congolese-Belgian electronic musician Nkisi and Moroccan-born multi-disciplinary artist and composer Bergsonist. 

Along with the fresh tunes, attendees will be able to enjoy new artworks.

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  • Music festivals

September 1-3

Clubs in NYC have nothing on Electric Zoo 2023. The EDM festival is poised to take over on Labor Day weekend, bringing crowds of EDM fans together for the event's twelfth summer. The festival has become an unmissable attraction on the electronic-dance-music circuit. The lineup hasn't been announced yet, but we'll keep you posted as soon as it's live.

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