The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is set to set to host its fifth-annual “Open Stages” music festival next weekend on Saturday, May 5. This outdoor event will run from 3 to 6 pm and will feature over 100 musicians in performance across 16 different “stages” set throughout Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood—including stoops, sidewalks, playgrounds, and cafés. The event is free and open to the public while also serving as a fundraiser for the Conservatory’s signature music therapy and music education programs.
Open Stages prides itself on offering a wide variety of music and this year is no different with more than 15 musical genres being performed. This year’s festival will include featured performances from Honk NYC, The Opera Next Door, Cole Quest and the City Pickers, the Brooklyn Cyclones Surf Squad, and Dancewave, as well as performance debuts from students in the Conservatory’s Music Partners, Suzuki, Community Music School, Studio Collective, and Music Therapy programs.
Open Stages was created during the Covid pandemic in May 2021, when it was first deemed safe to gather outdoors, as a way to bring the community together after over a year of isolation. Four years later, the now annual event has become wildly popular and is a celebration of New York’s resilience and music.
“What began as a masked, socially-distanced, and very carefully orchestrated free outdoor music festival during the later stages of Covid has blossomed into something bigger than we could have imagined five years later, with more than 8,000 people packing the streets and sidewalks of Park Slope on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy free, live music each year,” said Chad Cooper, Executive Director of Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. “I’m proud that every year, from its founding to today, Open Stages has been free to the public all while creating more than 200 market-rate, paid gigs for professional musicians and event staff.”
Last year, Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue — where much of the excitement will take place — was named NYC’s “coolest street.” This year’s festival will coincide with the kickoff of Park Slope Open Streets, which means that families will be able to enjoy the music along Fifth Avenue without worrying about traffic.
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