A piece of the Great Lawn in Central Park was so badly damaged during last month’s rain-soaked Global Citizen Festival that the beloved greenspace needed to close for the season sooner than anticipated so months-long repairs could get underway.
The immediate closure prompted Recent York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer to call for the annual festival’s relocation after heavy rain, foot traffic and machinery used for staging “destroyed one-third” of the park’s 55-acre Great Lawn.
The Central Park Conservancy determined that the damage required the “immediate closure of the lawn” so the grass might be re-seeded, she wrote in a letter to Mayor Eric Adams on Monday.
“Because of this, 12 acres of public greenspace will probably be unavailable to Recent Yorkers until April 2024 or later, all to accommodate a one-day event,” Brewer wrote.
“I even have never been a fan of the Global Citizen Festival because so little, if any, of the grants are allocated to non-profits in Recent York City.”
The councilwoman noted the festival rakes in $2 million for town’s general fund and suggested the event be held at an arena or stadium as an alternative of Central Park.
This 12 months’s Global Citizen Festival drew about 30,000 attendees, roughly half of its previous crowd, based on the Recent York Times.
The Central Park Conservancy, which manages greenspace, said it was “very disenchanted that the long-lasting Great Lawn is now closed and unavailable for Recent Yorkers to enjoy this fall” in a press release.
The organization is working to revive the lawn “hopefully in time to reopen this spring,” a spokesperson said.
Your complete lawn is off limits, the spokesperson told The Post.
The Great Lawn closes to the general public yearly for maintenance from November to April, city Parks and Recreation officials identified.
The Global Citizen Festival has taken place in Central Park for the past 11 years and is a free, single-day event. The organization has contributed greater than $40 billion in its fight to finish extreme poverty.
Organizers work with various city agencies every 12 months they usually are “incredibly grateful to call Recent York City and Central Park home of our movement,” a spokesperson said, adding that they worked closer with those agencies and the Conservancy resulting from the rain.
“Ultimately, the City of Recent York, the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Central Park Conservancy determined that this 12 months’s festival should go ahead,” the Global Citizen spokesperson said and confirmed it could cover any costs tied to the damage.
Organizers followed permitting protocols and are answerable for covering the expected repair costs, the Parks and Recreation Department said.
“While we share Recent Yorkers’ frustration, we’ve got had a positive relationship with the Global Citizen Festival producers and are confident any damages will probably be remedied expeditiously,” a spokesperson said in a press release.