Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio, More to Perform at SummerStage Benefit Thursday
Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio of Phish and many more will perform tonight (Thursday, Sept. 17) at SummerStage Jubilee, a free benefit concert supporting City Parks Foundation’s programs in parks, taking place via livestream at 8 p.m. ET.
The hour-long digital event will feature exclusive musical performances by Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio, Rufus Wainwright, Leslie Odom Jr., Rosanne Cash, Emily King and PJ Morton. The event highlights the various City Parks Foundation programs and will also showcase notable advocates for CPF’s work including sports icon Billie Jean King, television and radio hosts Ryan Seacrest and Jimmy Fallon, musical artist H.E.R., comedian Lewis Black and performer and Late Show bandleader Paul Shaffer.
The benefit event will be available to stream FOR FREE across all SummerStage social platforms – SummerStage Instagram, SummerStage YouTube, Facebook page and Twitch, as well as through the following partners: Bowery Presents, Brooklyn Bowl, The Capitol Theatre, FANS.com, iHeart Media’s Q104.3, Live Nation, Live for Live Music, Relix, Time Out New York, and WFUV.
National television broadcaster AXS TV will air the concert simultaneously on September 17th at 8:00PM EST / 5:00 PM PST on their channel and rebroadcast it on demand for 30 days following. New York City and tri-state area residents can watch encore presentations of SummerStage Jubilee on Saturday, September 19th at 7:00PM EST on WLNY-TV 10/55 and on Sunday, September 20th at 2:00PM EST on WABC.
Through its Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage Festival, City Parks Foundation is the largest presenter of free arts and cultural programs in New York City parks, and serves 300,000 New Yorkers each year through arts, education, sports and community building initiatives. The organization is dedicated to offering diverse programming to encourage residents to use and care for their local parks and green spaces.
At a time when public programs have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s parks have remained open as some of the only public assets available to all. City Parks Foundation’s programs have not stopped and have been available both in-person and online during this time. The 2020 SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Concert will help support these free parks programs and ensure they can continue, from free tennis and golf instruction to experiential, science-based lessons, to buying tools and bulbs for volunteers to beautify local parks and providing training, microgrants and coaching to facilitate their local advocacy. Donations will also help ensure SummerStage, New York City’s largest free music festival, and SummerStage Anywhere, its virtual festival, will remain free and available to all New Yorkers.
“Our city’s parks are our most democratic spaces, our backyards and our living rooms, places where communities gather and enjoy, and never have they been more essential. City Parks Foundation exists to encourage New Yorkers to use their parks, so we are excited to welcome such notable performers and to be part of our benefit concert to help support our work. We are grateful for their commitment to parks and to the New York City community,” said Heather Lubov, Executive Director of City Parks Foundation.
Long-time supporter and SummerStage founder Joe Killian is the Executive Producer of this event. Founder and CEO of Krantz Media Group LLC, Gary Krantz, is serving as Broadcast Consultant of the event. Additional members of the creative team behind the concert are Director Jake McAfee and Producer Jonathan Olson.
“I am beyond honored to produce and bring our annual celebration of the work done by City Parks Foundation to people all around the world through this year’s extraordinary digital Jubilee benefit concert,” shares Joe Killian. “I started the SummerStage series in 1986 with a vision of free music in Central Park and am thrilled to help sustain that through this special event.”
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