Bruce Springsteen & Paul Simon headlining Central Park "mega-concert"
Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon will headline the Central Park “mega-concert” to celebrate NYC’s reopening. Jennifer Hudson will also perform, and the rest of the lineup is still to be announced. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the news at a press conference on Thursday (7/1), saying, “This is going to be one of the greatest Central Park concerts in history. This is something for the ages.”
Coming in August: New York City's Central Park Homecoming Concert on the Great Lawn.
Performers: @PaulSimonMusic, @IAMJHUD, @springsteen, and more!
It's time to return to NYC and celebrate our rebirth.
See ya soon!#SummerOfNYC pic.twitter.com/KnAGt0fHVA
— City of New York (@nycgov) July 1, 2021
A person briefed on plans for the show told the New York Times that Patti Smith is expected to join Springsteen for a duet.
de Blasio didn’t give an updated date or location for the concert, but the Times reported in June that it was tentatively set for August 21 on Central Park’s Great Lawn, and that most tickets would be free, with some VIP seating also available.
Clive Davis had been tapped to put the concert together, and he told the Times that they were looking to book eight “iconic” acts to perform to 60,000 attendees, and a television audience.
Springsteen has been involved with NYC’s reopening already, having brought back his Broadway show for a limited run, the first Broadway production to open since the Great White Way went dark in March of 2020.
Simon, meanwhile, retired from touring in 2018 when he played a farewell show right where he grew up, in Queens, but he’s done a few other live sets since then, including Outside Lands and Live from Here with Chris Thile at Town Hall, both in 2019.
