NYC SummerStage 2022 Lineup Unveiled For 90 Outdoor Concerts

NEW YORK CITY — Music lovers won't have far to go in New York City this summer to scratch their sonic itch.

The SummerStage outdoor festival will return starting in June with roughly 90 free and benefit shows across the city, organizers announced Tuesday.

The lineup for the show — which is officially called Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage — features Caribou, Waxahatchee, MC Solaar, Modest Mouse, Fitz and The Tantrums, George Clinton and more.

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock will headline the Central Park opening night show June 11.

Central Park is the primary venue for many shows, but this year will see performances return to 12 neighborhood parks after a coronavirus pandemic hiatus, organizers said.

“We are so happy to be back in local neighborhood parks after a two-year hiatus and to be able to once again build our newly refurbished flagship concert venue in Central Park,” said Heather Lubov, City Parks Foundation’s executive director, in a statement. “Parks have always been neighborhood gathering spaces, but the pandemic brought to light just how absolutely critical parks are to our city’s health."

Other parks featuring performances are Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, Von King Park and The Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, Crotona Park in the Bronx and Corporal Thompson Park in Staten Island, organizers said.

Free shows this year have a global flair.

The "Aussie BBQ" event June 18 in Central Park, for example, will feature top Australian artists such as indie rock band You Am I, indigenous rapper Baker Boy and Aboriginal electronic music duo Electric Fields, organizers said.

French artists will be highlighted in the Fête de la Musique lineup on June 21 in Central Park headlined by French hip hop icon MC Solaar, organizers said.

Some shows in Central Park won't be free, but will benefit the City Parks Foundation's other free performances.

Those benefit shows include:

• Rock band Modest Mouse with indie rock band The Cribs on June 8 and 9
• Trombone Shorty’s Voodoo Threauxdown with funk, hip-hop group Tank and the Bangas, rapper Big Freedia, percussionist Cyril Neville and others on June 13
• George Clinton & his collective Parliament Funkadelic, with rock band Dopapod and soul music band Pimps of Joytime on June 15
• Scottish indie rock band Belle & Sebastian with Los Bitchos on June 16
• Pop singer-songwriter Andy Grammer and neo-soul band Fitz and The Tantrums on Aug. 4
• The Wild Hearts Tour with indie rock vocalist Sharon Van Etten, indie-folk, singer-songwriter Angel Olsen and singer and multi-instrumentalist Julien Baker on Aug. 20 and 21.

The SummerStage lineup includes the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival's 30th year starting Aug. 26. The three-day festival will feature veteran jazz musicians and up-and-comers playing live jazz in neighborhoods near where Parker worked and lived, organizers said.

More information about the vast array of concerts, performers and other planned events can be found at SummerStage.org.

A digital brochure for the festival can be found here.

A complete schedule of concerts can be found here.