Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

On the occasion of the Macy’s Annual Fishing Contest, Lefferts takes a look at Brooklyn’s fishing history. Sheepshead Porgies were once so thick along the shores of Brooklyn that Sheepshead Bay is named after them. Learn to clean and dress porgies, and we’ll cook them up with heirloom herbs at an outdoor hearth.

Start time: 2:30 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 789-2822

Location: Lefferts Historic House (Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

Celebrate Brooklyn!’s annual all-day festival of music, food, and crafts features a lineup of music selected to keep dancers moving into the night. This year’s headliner is the great King Sunny Adé of Nigeria. The bill also includes a rare U.S. appearance by South Africa’s Freshly Ground; The Mandingo Ambassadors, from NYC by way of Guinea, whose music “has been structured to make you feel good” (The New York Times); the wild Senegalese drum troupe Cheikh M’Baye & Sing Sing; the powerful Brooklyn-born, Ghanaian vocalist Abena Koomson; and whirling traditional Egyptian dancer, Yasser Darwish.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 9:00 pm

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

The R.H. Macy’s Fishing Contest has been an annual event in Prospect Park since 1947. A rite of passage for tens of thousands of Brooklyn kids over the years, the contest runs for a week each July and is held lakeside near the Prospect Park Audubon Center at the Boathouse.

The event is open to kids 15 years old or under. Equipment is provided free of charge or participants can bring their own. All fishing is done on a catch-and-release basis; fish must be returned to the Lake alive.

Groups of 10 or more must call (718) 287-3400 x101 to register in advance. Individuals can just show up and register.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 4:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 287-3400

Location: Prospect Park Audubon Center, located just inside the Lincoln Road/Ocean Avenue entrance to the Park

Join the Rangers and discover how some animals hide or disguise themselves and why others don’t.

Start time: 11:00 am

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: The Audubon Center, Boathouse, Prospect Park (inside the Lincoln Road/Ocean Avenue entrance)

On the occasion of the Macy’s Annual Fishing Contest, Lefferts takes a look at Brooklyn’s fishing history. Sheepshead Porgies were once so thick along the shores of Brooklyn that Sheepshead Bay is named after them. Learn to clean and dress porgies, and we’ll cook them up with heirloom herbs at an outdoor hearth.

Start time: 2:30 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 789-2822

Location: Lefferts Historic House (Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

The R.H. Macy’s Fishing Contest has been an annual event in Prospect Park since 1947. A rite of passage for tens of thousands of Brooklyn kids over the years, the contest runs for a week each July and is held lakeside near the Prospect Park Audubon Center at the Boathouse.

The event is open to kids 15 years old or under. Equipment is provided free of charge or participants can bring their own. All fishing is done on a catch-and-release basis; fish must be returned to the Lake alive.

Groups of 10 or more must call (718) 287-3400 x101 to register in advance. Individuals can just show up and register.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 4:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 287-3400

Location: Prospect Park Audubon Center, located just inside the Lincoln Road/Ocean Avenue entrance to the Park

Settle under the big tree at Lefferts Historic House and remember why the art of telling stories never gets old. Hear Tammy Hall and other guest artists tell tales and sing songs from different cultures that have enchanted audiences for generations.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8999

Location: Lefferts Historic House (enter Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

Enjoy creekside views of wading birds and basking turtles.

First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 11:00 am

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Ramp near the Audubon Center, East Drive & Lincoln Road

Enjoy creekside views of wading birds and basking turtles.

First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 12:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Ramp near the Audubon Center (East Drive & Lincoln Road)

Enjoy creek side views of wading birds and basking turtles.

First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Ramp near the Audubon Center (East Drive & Lincoln Road)

Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music and has defined a genre of songwriting charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. He's been honored with inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2004) and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (2007).

Proceeds from this concert will benefit the free Celebrate Brooklyn! concerts.

Start time: 5:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

The New York Times has lauded Stephen Petronio as “one of the few contemporary dancer makers who have created an instantly recognizable style.” He celebrates his company’s 25th Anniversary Season with the dynamic and elemental I Drink the Air Before Me, an evening-length work inspired by the power of extreme weather and storms, both atmospheric and internal. Petronio’s predilection for forward-thinking popular music—his dancers have moved to Rufus Wainwright and Antony—is satisfied here by a score from the beloved young composer Nico Muhly.

Start time: 8:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

The swamp boogie accordion master Buckwheat Zydeco and his band “spit out the kind of crackling music that's been missing since the heyday of Stax Records,” says The Wall Street Journal, which adds that, “on stage [Zydeco’s] attack is relentless.” Zydeco shares the bill with the Holmes Brothers, whose harmony-filled blend of American roots music jumps from church to the juke joint and “recalls the era when soul seceded from gospel music” (Mother Jones).

Start time: 7:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

The South Asian superstar, Bollywood icon, and judge of Indian Idol Kailash Kher moves “among styles without hesitation, adding elements of folk, reggae and rock to Indian pop,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which adds that he “has a voice as appealing as it is thrilling.” Kher is joined on this bill by Electro Morocco, which is comprised of five NYC-based Israelis and combines buzzing guitars with synths and beats to concoct a dance floor-friendly mix of retro rock, Middle Eastern folk, and warped electro.

Start time: 7:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Learn fresh water ecology while practicing “catch and release” fishing. Come see if you can land the big one.

Poles and bait provided. First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 11:00 am

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: The Audubon Center, Boathouse, Prospect Park (inside the Lincoln Road/Ocean Avenue entrance)

Bring your young one to Prospect Park for their first birding outing on this bird tour designed for young children.

Start time: 11:00 am

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Meet at Vanderbilt Playground.

Settle under the big tree at Lefferts Historic House and remember why the art of telling stories never gets old. Hear Tammy Hall and other guest artists tell tales and sing songs from different cultures that have enchanted audiences for generations.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8999

Location: Lefferts Historic House (enter Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

From Battle Pass and the Dungon Oak to Lookout Hill and the Maryland 400 monument discover the historic events that took place in Brooklyn’s flagship park.

Start time: 11:00 am

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: The Audubon Center, Boathouse, Prospect Park (inside the Lincoln Road/Ocean Avenue entrance)

Roots reggae legend Burning Spear will return to Celebrate Brooklyn! for another epic performance. Last year’s vital Jah Is Real featured contributions from Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrel and found Spear at the top of his game. PopMatters said, “Four decades and still dropping knowledge: no other artist, with the possible exception of Toots Hibbert, can lay claim to being reggae’s true elder statesman.”

The evening will begin with the harmonies and church-inflected soul of Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens.

Start time: 7:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

The exceptional jazz-funk trio Soulive celebrates ten years of “simmering instrumental funk” (Entertainment Weekly) by bringing out The Royal Family, a conglomeration of various side projects and special guests that will come together for the ultimate outdoor summer NYC jam. The proceedings will begin with a performance by Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, which Offbeat describes as “musically hard-nosed and rooted in 1970s inner city funk.”

Start time: 7:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Forty years after the Summer of Love (and 30 years after the Summer of Hate), MGMT is celebrating the grand re-opening of the third eye of the world with Oracular Spectacular, the duo's much-anticipated first full-length album, an enigmatic and prophetic collection of hallucinatory sounds and hook-riddled pop tones for the new millennium. MGMT is Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two psychic pilgrims whose paths first intersected in the green pastures of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, circa 2002.

Proceeds from this concert will benefit the free Celebrate Brooklyn! concerts.

Start time: 5:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Dean & Britta, who are beloved as one of the sexiest duo’s in rock, in addition to being alumni of the groundbreaking alt-rock band Luna, perform original scores to Warhol's rarely seen short silent film portraits, which captured Factory superstars, celebrities, and anonymous teenagers in mesmerizing four-minute shots. The New York Times says, “The music unabashedly translates the ominous drone of early Velvet Underground songs like I’m Waiting for the Man and Venus in Furs into a more modern electronic mode reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s chic torture-chamber disco.”

Commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum, the project is like an archeological dig unearthing NYC’s 1960s art scene, complete with an unforgettable soundtrack. Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts, whom Pitchfork describes as “moody-sounding f*ckers who make fabulous stripped-down garage-pop,” will set the tone for the night.

Start time: 7:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Join us as we explore with nets and magnifiers to find out what lives in the pond.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: The Audubon Center, Boathouse, Prospect Park (inside the Lincoln Road/Ocean Avenue entrance)

Settle under the big tree at Lefferts Historic House and remember why the art of telling stories never gets old. Hear Tammy Hall and other guest artists tell tales and sing songs from different cultures that have enchanted audiences for generations.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8999

Location: Lefferts Historic House (enter Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

Enjoy creekside views of wading birds and basking turtles.

First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 11:00 am

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Ramp near the Audubon Center, East Drive & Lincoln Road

Enjoy creekside views of wading birds and basking turtles.

First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 12:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Ramp near the Audubon Center (East Drive & Lincoln Road)

Enjoy creek side views of wading birds and basking turtles.

First come, first-served. Ages 8+.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Ramp near the Audubon Center (East Drive & Lincoln Road)

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of history’s greatest pop albums, and the extravagantly, hilariously whacky and over-the-top film it inspired (the apotheosis of both the purple one’s genius and self caricature), Celebrate Brooklyn! invites audiences to don something lacey and ruffled and come out for a night of participatory Prince. There will be lyric subtitles on-screen, although everyone probably knows all the words already. Joy Dragland, lead singer of Brooklyn’s live disco orchestra Escort certainly does; Purple Rain was the first cassette she ever owned. Her group will lead the sing-along, after warming up the crowd with an opening set.

(Note: The film is Rated R. Admission of anyone under 17 will require an accompanying parent or guardian.)

Start time: 7:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Fronted by the Joplin-like vocals and the Hammond B-3 playing of the group’s fearless frontwoman, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals play “blues-based rock with glorious passion.” The music of Deer Tick is hard to categorize—folk? indie rock? alt-country? Americana?—but easy to love. They “write and play some of the most soulful, inspired music around, littered with lyrics as sharp as a shot of whiskey and rapid-fire guitar solos strong enough to blow the dust off your boots.” (Brooklyn Vegan) The night begins with the ferocious riffs of The London Souls, who claim Led Zeppelin and Stevie Wonder as prime influences. “Few bands so young have any business brandishing the mighty musical chops The London Souls do.” (The Deli Magazine)

Start time: 7:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

The Lyricist Lounge returns to Celebrate Brooklyn! with a momentous night of hip-hop featuring Brooklyn legend Big Daddy Kane, who will perform with his live band. The show will be preceded by a screening of the short documentary BDK: The Big Daddy Kane Story, directed by Lyricist Lounge’s own Anthony Marshall.

Start time: 7:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Discover the beauty of Prospect Park’s unique arches.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Audubon Center (East Drive & Lincoln Road)

Settle under the big tree at Lefferts Historic House and remember why the art of telling stories never gets old. Hear Tammy Hall and other guest artists tell tales and sing songs from different cultures that have enchanted audiences for generations.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8999

Location: Lefferts Historic House (enter Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

Take a nature hike and explore the last standing forest in Brooklyn on this guided tour of one of Prospect Park’s most secluded and rustic areas.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 421-2021

Location: Picnic House (West Drive & Third Street)

This summer, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal—two leading lights of modern blues—are joining forces for their first-ever tour together. This show will feature Bonnie and Taj on stage alone and together. Bonnie, backed by her always-dazzling group, and Taj, with the six-piece, Grammy-winning Phantom Blues Band, will play full sets separately, before closing the night with a collaborative, blow-out performance.

This performance raises money for the free Celebrate Brooklyn! concerts. Tickets are for sale at Ticketmaster.

Start time: 7:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Despite the evident appeal of their deliciously skewed songs, heartbreaking hooks and deep pop sensibilities, Animal Collective is clearly not a simple or stable ‘band’ proposition. Friends and musical partners since 1992, core members Avey Tare and Panda Bear came together in 2000 with the intention of moving pop music in a direction that would place heavy emphasis on sonic experience. Soon after this, they began operating as Animal Collective, an umbrella name now used for a grouping of four people: Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deaken, who play together under different names and in different configurations (anything between 1 to 4 people), and whose releases are prone to continual musical change: from beautifully skewed pop ballads to fiercely ruptured noise-squalls to tribal rhythmic work-outs to simple folk songs, to who knows where; from fully orchestrated group freak-outs to a the intimacy of an acoustic duo.

Proceeds from this concert will benefit the free Celebrate Brooklyn! concerts.

Start time: 5:30 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Prospect Park Bandshell

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Settle under the big tree at Lefferts Historic House and remember why the art of telling stories never gets old. Hear Tammy Hall and other guest artists tell tales and sing songs from different cultures that have enchanted audiences for generations.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8999

Location: Lefferts Historic House (enter Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company presents Tally Ho!, or Navigating the Future a rip-roaring musical which will tour City streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs.

The production, free to all New Yorkers, has book, lyrics and direction by Crystal Field and musical score composed by David Tice. It's about a young bank teller's adventures in high finance with the big bankers and the heads of industry. The tale gets cosmic as Hera and Athena jump in to help when toxic assets and old mortgages join the runoff from the earth--the dead batteries, pesticides and rotting garbage--that have begun piling up on Mount Olympus. The piece will be written dynamically as events of state and the world unfold.

The production will play Theater for the New City (August 1), Morningside Park (August 2), Tompkins Square Park (August 8), Herbert Von King Park (August 9), Coney Island Boardwalk (August 14), Wise Towers (August 15), Central Park Bandshell (August 16), Prospect Park Concert Grove (August 22), Travers Park (August 23), St. Mary's Park (August 29), Washington Square Park (August 30), Sobel Court & Bowen Street (September 12), and St. Marks Church (September 13).

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (212) 254-1109

Location: Prospect Park Concert Grove

Settle under the big tree at Lefferts Historic House and remember why the art of telling stories never gets old. Hear Tammy Hall and other guest artists tell tales and sing songs from different cultures that have enchanted audiences for generations.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8999

Location: Lefferts Historic House (enter Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard)

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).

Help restore Brooklyn's only forest, located in Prospect Park.

Start time: 10:00 am

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 965-8960

Location: Meet at the Picnic House (on the Long Meadow near the 3rd street entrance to the Park).