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Over the weekend The Arcade Fire played a big show on Randall's Island, far far away from the Knitting Factory and Mercury Lounge (some of the first venues they ever played here). For those who made the trip to see them, the post-show transportation made for quite the afterparty. One concert goer wrote in: "10,000 people trying to get on express buses does not work - we ended up walking the Triborough back to Queens."
If they stuck around waiting for the crowd to thin, they would have gotten a more intimate encore as Win & Co. headed into the crowd to play the Violent Femmes "Kiss Off":
Hopefully the song choice had nothing to do with his annoyance when met with "boos" after telling the crowd earlier that night "I know we come to New York a lot, but this is going to be the last time for a few years." Maybe there will be better transportation options to Randall's Island by then.
So how do you get home from Randall's Island after a big event? The MTA currently offers the following directions for getting there from Manhattan: Take the 4,5,6 trains uptown to 125th St. Exit to 125th Street and Lexington Ave. Take the M35 bus to Randall's Island. And there's the ferry.
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Who the flck cares what these losers think?!
Um, the x81 express bus to and from the 61st/woodside 7 stop had no line. none.
Isn't there a Ferry too?
this is what happens on a weekend.
no service or who gives a crap type service.
The big problem with Randall's Island is that it was all a Robert Moses project and you were expected to drive there. Ironically, Moses never learned how to drive.
Rich old jews don't drive - they have chauffeurs
this crappy band/show hardly qualifies as a "big event".
I didn't know that TVM?
that is a big problem. at least it's not as big of a hassle as going to Rikers Island. I've read they are really a-holes. They run your name through the system when you get on the bus.
The Ferry wasn't any better, one ferry every hour that can hold maybe 300 people? There must have been at least 2 thousand in line after the first one left. I gave up and walked, don't know how it went after that.
people need to relax. i walked across that bridge to and from the concert. it was maybe a 20-25 minute walk from the subway, which, in New York Terms, is a delicate stroll through a park of butterflies, happy unicorns and sunshine.
If one isn't that pressed for time and headed to Manhattan, I'd recommend walking south from Randall's Island and then crossing the Ward's Island Bridge (which is a pedestrian bridge) to East Harlem. Then you're on the Bobby Wagner Walkway, which is a really nice stretch of park along the East River.
Honestly, walking back wasn't bad at all...
I walked the Triborough to my friend's apartment on 127th. It was about a 30 minute walk going and a 45 minute walk coming back.
Great show, worth the trek.
All of the promotional posters and e-mails said to take the X80 express bus from 125th Street to Randall's Island. The bus cost $5 and the line was enormous, winding around 3 blocks. My friends took the M35 and didn't have to wait in line (and were able to use their unlimited metro cards, or get a free transfer from the subway). I guess the MTA runs these special event express buses to avoid crowding the regular bus lines.
My buddies and I got a ride from some livery cab guys who were wisely waiting around the end of the X80 line, and paid $5 each to cram into one car.
paul, we did the same thing. not a prob at all from woodside to get back to the city, can't believe more people didn't catch on.
such a great show
The concert was amazing and well worth the trek up to Randall's Island.
Unfortunately, NY Waterway's lack of planning, foresight and common sense had to ruin the trek back home for a lot concert goers who anticipated that 34th Street bound ferries would run regularly, i.e. more than once an hour.
After waiting inline for 90 minutes for the only operating ferry we gave up and then hiked the Triborough Bridge to 125th Street and Lexington. Concert ended at 11:00PM, got home at 1:00.
Thanks NY Waterways, you're the best.
I left about six songs into AF's set and was glad I did...perfect night weather-wise, but poor acoustics, the flat-out creepy Manhattan Psychiatric Center looming behind the stage, and the prospect of walking across a darkened Triborough Bridge into East Harlem at midnight doesn't make for an appealing venue (the pedestrian bridge on one side of the path had a large orange closed sign, but I'm assuming the other was open). Bowery Presents (the promoter) would do well to both publish set times (it's ridiculous to have to delve into the comments on a vegan blog to find this information) and team up with the Randalls Island people to provide accurate, up-to-date advice on getting to/from. (The maps on the Island's website haven't been updated since 2004!). As usual in New York, things are made as difficult as possible. In this case, if more people were aware of the X81/Woodside option, it might have taken some of the pressure off the ferry and X80 (the regularly-scheduled M35 was nowhere to be found). Either way, the logistics of getting 20,000 people off an island expeditiously and safely needs to be addressed in a less ad-hoc manner. Forcing thousands of drunk, stoned, otherwise addled youths to hike back to civilization late at night after a seven hour festival is an accident waiting to happen.
The line for the bus to get to Randall's island from Harlem was several blocks long, so we walked over the pedestrian bridge at 105th street. Maybe there's a pedestrian part of the triborough bridge but we couldn't find it.
Coming back we took the buses and were amazed how efficient everything was (especially considering how it was to get there). We waited 15 minutes for a bus, tops. And that was in the big crowd that left as the show ended. In Harlem we caught the M60 right away.
Despite this I liked the location on Randall's Island. Maybe for the next event there should be better signage for pedestrians (and bikers?).
I was at the show and in the pit, Got some pretty good shots of the 2nd Encore of "Kiss off" you guys should check it out. A great event, The pedestrian bridge was a 20 minute walk to the island (poorly marked, but the cops directed me in the right direction) then the m15 took me right downtown. Anyway, enjoy the photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hailmaryny/sets/72157602309718868/
The ferry was HORRENDOUS. It left Manhattan late during the afternoon, and the wait to get home at the end of the evening... I felt bad for the cops who were forced to deal with all the angry people whose luck didn't include getting on the 12:00am ferry after waiting 45 minutes (it didn't appear that anyone from NY Waterway was around).
We ended up hiking it across the bridge to 125th.
There are separate pedestrian bridges into Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx from Randall's Island. The Manhattan one is very poorly marked and hard to find though.
I have a broken leg and hobbled across the bridge. Crap organization by the powers that be, but still, there was a good atmosphere in the crowd on the bridge, and I had pleasant conversations with random strangers on the way back to NYC.
This is the face of indie rock?
I thought the buses were pretty efficient, especially since the ride was FREE. They were coming pretty frequently. Then again, my group and I decided to leave before the encore in order to get a head start home and beat the rush. We missed the last couple of songs but it beat the hell out of spending forever waiting in line with a bunch of antsy hipsters. And we made it back to downtown Manhattan in less than an hour.
After the show we asked several policemen and staffers where the footbridge to Queens was located. They all either didn't know or told us to go in the wrong direction. We were headed to Astoria but ended up walking across the bridge to Manhattan then taking the train. We definitely saw signs for the buses, but no signs at all directing us to the walkways. We also tried to flag down passing cabs near the parking area but the parking attendants refused to let them stop. Getting off the island was really a special circle of hell.
The Ferry experience was horrendous. A $25 round trip pass got you there, with no guarentee of getting home. I also trotted home across the 125th st foot bridge after waiting and hour and a half for a return ferry. They were issuing refunds only to those who bought a one-way return trip and couldnt get on the boat. The rest of us suckers were 25 bucks in the hole with no boat. Last time NY Waterways sees a dime out of me.