After significant speculation as to whether it will continue, New York City’s Little Island has announced its free programming for summer 2026.
This season will be produced on a later timeline than the last two sell-out seasons; it will run July 29–September 6. The 2026 season will include 56 different events, including concerts, world premieres, live radio shows, culinary events and parties in Little Island’s open-air performance spaces.
Highlights of the season include:
The world premiere of Julio Torres and Martine Gutierrez’s Marina with a score by Lia Ouyang Rusli and choreography by Ryan McNamara in collaboration with the Whitney Biennial.Thomas Bartlett with Laurie Anderson, Peter Hale, and Jesse Goodman, celebrating Allen Ginsberg’s centennial in an epic series of concerts, readings and park-wide takeovers, including special guests Rufus Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Anne Waldman, Davóne Tines and moreSummer’s Eve, MacArthur Genius and cabaret icon Justin Vivian Bond’s fresh new actCécile McLorin Salvant curating and performing a week of Tin Pan Alley-inspired music, with special guests Lillias White and Mikaela BennettThe third explosive iteration of Tony winner Qween Jean’s Summer Legacy Ball.
In 2013, Broadway producer Barry Diller, in partnership with Hudson River Park Trust leadership, embarked on the unique opportunity to envision a solution for the repair and reactivation of Pier 54, which had been badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Sitting directly in the Hudson River itself, Little Island opened in May 2021 and has since been enjoyed by more than 7.5 million visitors and presented and produced more than 885 performances. Little Island was born from a collaboration of the UK-based Heatherwick Studio and the New York-based landscape architecture firm MNLA, led by Signe Nielsen, the park’s imaginative design offers all New Yorkers and visitors a new public space that is dynamic, captivating, and restorative.
Little Island is fully funded by The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation. Zack Winokur is Producing Artistic Director. The park is operated year-round by a 50-member staff led by Executive Director Laura Clement.
Tickets to Little Island’s summer season of performances are available for purchase now on TodayTix.com, or by downloading the TodayTix app.