Saturday, Feb. 20 marked the launch of NY PopsUp, an arts festival featuring hundreds of free pop-up performances throughout New York. The festival is an effort to bring back the arts and culture scene to New York.
These performances are “intended to revitalize the spirit and emotional well-being of New York citizens with the energy of live performance while jump-starting New York’s struggling live entertainment,” the state said.
The first was a jazz performance that took place at the Javits Center on Saturday. It was led by musician Jon Batiste, choreographer and dancer Ayodele Casel, and opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo. The performance was a tribute to New York’s health care workers.
NY PopsUp launched Feb. 20 and will run through Labor Day. The festival will peak at the Tribeca Film Festival and The Festival at Little Island at Pier 55. This will bring the festival to a total of more than 1,000 performances by then.
The pop-up festival is meant to serve as a role model way to bring back live performances safely. NY PopsUp is coordinating with public health officials and will strictly adhere to Department of Health COVID-19 protocols.
“Cities have taken a real blow during COVID, and the economy will not come back fast enough on its own – we must bring it back,” Gov. Cuomo said in a statement. “Creative synergies are vital for cities to survive, and our arts and cultural industries have been shut down all across the country, taking a terrible toll on workers and the economy. We want to be aggressive with reopening the State and getting our economy back on track, and NY PopsUp will be an important bridge to the broader reopening of our world-class performance venues and institutions. New York has been a leader throughout this entire pandemic, and we will lead once again with bringing back the arts.”
NY PopUps will perform all throughout NY, including the five boroughs of NYC and Long Island. More than 300 pop-up events are said to take place. Performers will include Hugh Jackman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kenan Thompson, Renée Fleming, J’Nai Bridges, Taylor Mac, and Savion Glover.
The stages for these pop-up performances will be all over the place. They will include transit and subway stations, museums, skate parks, street corners, fire escapes, parking lots, storefronts, and upstate venues.
“Instead of there being masses of audience members at a handful of events, this festival is a mass of events, each for a safe and secure ‘handful’ of audience members,” the state said.
“If we’re really going to bring back the heart and soul of New York City, we need our arts and culture back,” the mayor said.
Cuomo first announced the pop-up festival idea during his State of the State last month.
“This groundbreaking initiative will help revive the arts while celebrating New York’s resiliency and recovery from the COVID pandemic,” Cuomo said back then.
