{"id":355003,"date":"2026-09-23T21:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355003\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T21:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:18:11","slug":"a-noreaster-aimed-at-nyc-in-time-for-the-global-citizen-festival-could-trash-central-park-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355003\/","title":{"rendered":"A nor’easter aimed at NYC in time for the Global Citizen Festival could trash Central Park, again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top musical acts, including Lauryn Hill, John Legend and Lenny Kravitz, are set to hit Central Park\u2019s Great Lawn Saturday for the Global Citizen Festival \u2014 but so could driving rain from a brewing nor\u2019easter<\/a>, threatening a disastrous encore of three years ago when the lawn was trashed and closed to the public for months.<\/p>\n

In September 2023, the annual star-studded concert,<\/a> was held despite heavy rain and soggy conditions. As a result, the Great Lawn had to be shut down two months ealier <\/a>for repairs and resodding after tens of thousands of concertgoers stomped it into a muddy mess. The lawn\u2019s closure, which usually happens in the winter, coincided with peak fall foliage-viewing season, putting a prime spot for autumn leaf lovers off limits.<\/p>\n

The forecast points to a potential repeat. Wednesday morning, strong winds were already whipping New York, with\u00a0 forecasts on the developing nor\u2019easter predicting a 70% chance of rain on Friday and Saturday, when the concert is set to run from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen this weekend?\u201d asked Councilmember Gale Brewer,<\/a> whose Upper West Side district includes Central Park.\u00a0 \u201cI haven\u2019t heard of any rain dates \u2014 they don\u2019t do rain dates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FestivalgoersFestivalgoers stand in the rain during the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, at Central Park in New York. (Evan Agostini\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n

Brewer is on record saying the Global Citizen Festival should not be held on the Great Lawn, urging it instead be relocated to Randalls Island. Other concerts in the park are nixed if it\u2019s raining, the councilwoman noted. She said she plans to write to Mayor Mamdani this week about her concerns over the concert\u2019s impact on the Great Lawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t even a nor\u2019easter, it was a rainstorm,\u201d she said of the 2023 festival fiasco. \u201cWe weren\u2019t in winter yet. I don\u2019t care how much sun there is, that place is jammed. So the notion that it\u2019s OK to close it, even for a month, is to me outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city Parks Department and Central Park Conservancy<\/a>, which operates the park, say they are monitoring the weather and taking steps to protect the lawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Parks is proud to continue its partnership with the Global Citizen Festival and bring such a significant event to Central Park,\u201d a Parks spokesperson said. \u201cWe\u2019re aware of the current weather forecast and, as with every large-scale event, we continuously monitor weather conditions in coordination with our sister agencies and event partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Great Lawn in Central Park is pictured after the 2023 Global Citizen Festival. (Central Park Conservancy)<\/p>\n

The department is taking \u201cextra steps\u201d this year to help protect the Great Lawn during the festival, including adding more signage and detours to minimize impact on the grass, plus putting in \u201cadditional flooring, pre-seeding and conditioning (and) cordoning off vulnerable areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trust NYC Parks to make the appropriate determination about whether the event proceeds based on conditions at the time and what is in the best interest of the Park,\u201d a Central Park Conservancy spokesperson said. \u201cWe will continue to support preparations and work with our partners to ensure that appropriate measures are in place ahead of this year\u2019s festival to protect the Lawn and the Park, particularly given the forecasted weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Global Citizen Festival spokesperson said the festival is coordinating with the Mayor\u2019s Office and NYC agencies \u201cto monitor conditions and prepare for every scenario,\u201d adding, \u201cjust like we have done every year, if there is any damage, we cover all costs to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our 14th year in Central Park,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited because there\u2019s still so much work to be done \u2014 nearly 10 percent of the world\u2019s population is living in extreme poverty. Our movement won\u2019t stop because it rains \u2014 it won\u2019t stop until extreme poverty does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople wearing rain ponchos attend the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, at Central Park in New York. (Yuki Iwamura\/AP)<\/p>\n

Global Citizen, which has raised billions to fight poverty, typically sees 60,000 concertgoers pack the 12-acre lawn. The festival in 2023 paid for the lawn\u2019s repairs. Brewer has said she believes the festival also brings in around $2 million for the city\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n

According to Hugh Evans<\/a>, an Australian humanitarian who is the event\u2019s co-founder and CEO, this year\u2019s festival effort will allow \u201c2.5 million families across the Indo-Pacific region to have access to clean energy,\u201d plus benefit 1.5 million small farmers around the world and combat global food insecurity.<\/p>\n

Locally, Evans said, volunteers are pitching in, and last week did a beach cleanup in the Rockaways and this week will \u201csupport homeless people across New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the festival is primarily focused on supporting communities living in extreme poverty on less than $3 a day worldwide, it annually injects roughly $33 million into New York City through spending by attendees and visiting tourists on hotels, transit, retail, food and beverages, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Also, instead of entering a free ticket lottery, fans can make a $25 donation to support City Parks Foundation\u2019s free programming or organizations helping homeless New Yorkers. People can also earn festival tickets by volunteering in NYC to do urban planting, food donation and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top musical acts, including Lauryn Hill, John Legend and Lenny Kravitz, are set to hit Central Park\u2019s Great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,267,9,24,264,10,12,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-355003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}