Incase the news managed to escape you, Jon Bon Jovi came, sang and conquered Central Park over the weekend. Of the over 60K tickets given away to fans, around 50K showed up to the Great Lawn...leaving a reported 150K plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The AP reports, "Major League Baseball, which sponsored the event, said that more than 100 volunteers worked into the next day collecting the recyclables," an effort made in collaboration with the......

The eagerly anticipated free Bon Jovi concert attracted an estimated 48,500 people to Central Park yesterday. And were the audience members pumped: People were waiting since Friday for prime seats on the Great Lawn while others settled for arriving many hours before the concert, after having cased the stage set-up ahead of time. The NY Times spoke to one woman who had Jon Bon Jovi's signature tattooed on her back (immortalizing the time he signed......

Aside from the music, this evening's Bon Jovi concert on Central Park's Great Lawn will be different from the regular Metropolitan Opera or NY Philharmonic concert-- primarily because of the things one won't be able to bring into the park. While security is generally laissez-faire towards alcohol and food at the classical music events, today's free show is another story. Ticket holders will not be allowed to bring strollers, umbrellas, alcohol, cameras, backpacks, large bags,......

Photos by Joe Schumacher and orangejuicy. Will the Bon Jovi madness never end? amNewYork reported that the line for the Saturday concert was expected to form last night. Hard core fans want to secure good spots, and not get pushed into the overflow section. As we mentioned earlier this week, only 50K of the 60K will have spots with a view, the rest are sent to a space with no sightline of the stage......

It's no surprise that ticket prices for the Bon Jovi concert being held in Central Park this Saturday went from free to $1500 in no time. As we mentioned yesterday, Spitzer had signed a legislation making online scalping legal, and Bloomberg agrees that there's not much that can be done. The mayor declared to the NY Post:"The scalping is just a way of life. I can't tell you it's not worth that kind of money.......

How much would you pay for free Jon Bon Jovi tickets? This much? As the big Bon Jovi concert approaches tickets to the free show are going for as much as $1500/pair, The NY Post reports. The show is going down this Saturday on the Great Lawn in Central Park, and an additional lot of tickets will be released at the Javits Center this Friday (more details at MLB.com). Hardcore fans of Jon Bon......

Yesterday Bon Jovi fanatics rushed to the closest ballparks to pick up their tickets to a free concert on the Great Lawn next weekend. NY1 reports that fans lined up for hours at all four stadiums; the concert is part of the upcoming All-Star Game celebration. One fan declared of JBJ: "Back in the day he was number one and he still is," while others were happy he was doing the show for free and......

Photos by Seth Wenig/AP. Yesterday came the announcement of a free concert that would be held on Central Park's Great Lawn this month featuring Mr. Jon Bon Jersey himself (now a Manhattanite). Today more details about the July 12th show and how to procure your golden tickets are unveiled via Bon Jovi's official website. Essentially, tickets will be made available at every major, and some minor baseball stadiums beginning July 2nd. Starting at 9......

Photo of the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Naumburg Bandshell by David Velez. As mentioned earlier this week, last night an unplanned Battle of the Bands took place between the Brooklyn and New York Philharmonics, both playing Central Park with just 30 minutes between their starting times. Who won? The above photo of the Brooklyn Philharmonic was taken at 8:10 p.m., about 40 minutes after they went on. The below photo of the New York......

The Parks Dept. decided to throw in the towel on litigation that's been going on for three years and conceded to reevaluate its requirement that no more than 50,000 people could gather on Central Park's Great Lawn at one time. Aside from six allotted exceptions (per year) that include four reserved for performances by the Metropolitan Opera and the NY Philharmonic, the city's rationale for crowd-size restrictions was that very large crowds could damage the......

There's been a lot of ink, virtual and otherwise, already spilled on Governors Island. But today, NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff proclaimed that the new site "could well become the most inspired public park built here in generations." He also said the plan is "humble in scale but big on ambition." But didn't he say last spring that the designs lacked ambition? Hmm. We have to give him this: Of the five proposals,......

Two men walking along the East 79th transverse near Fifth Avenue were robbed at gunpoint by four men around 7:15PM on Wednesday night. The victims, ages 34 and 38, gave up their wallets and a cellphone for the robbers, who are described as young "black males between 18 and 20" years old" who "fled in the direction of the Great Lawn." The 34-year-old victim spoke to the Daily News and explained he and his partner......

The Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation is having a public meeting tonight to share the five designs for the island so far. The designers will be presenting and the public can offer feedback. The meeting is at 6:30PM at FIT (Reeves Great Hall, 28th Street and 7th Avenue), and you can see the designs here and wonder if you agree with what the NY Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff thought about them, as......

In the summer of 2004, various groups were upset that the city was prohibiting them from protesting and rallying on Central Park's Great Lawn. The city argued that the Great Lawn would be damaged and there's not enough money to clean up after protests; concerts events usually had corporate backers who paid for clean up. The protesters argued they were entitled to expressing themselves where they like. And in 2004, a judge ruled for......

The Central Park Conservancy, the private, non-profit organization that manages the park, let us know about some new signs that will be appearing soon. It's a call to action for park goers to help out: Fifteen signs are being installed with "before" photographs showing how far the park has come since the 1970s and 1980s, with the words "What would we do without your donations?" on them. This is a rendering of the sign......

THEATER: Both the Fringe Festival and the wildly successful, but once Fringe-y, 24 Hour Plays are celebrating their tenth anniversaries this year, so why not do it together? Starting tonight, some of the original cast members and plays from the series that proved that a gimmick (conceive, write, rehearse and perform a play in a day) can produce fresh theatre, reunite in five totally different sets of five. - Mallory Jensen Lucille Lortel Theater [121......

Nice: Court papers have been released showing how the city successfully blocked protests in Central Park, most notably protests during the Republican Convention. You might remember from two years ago that the some of the city's excuses for not having the protests on the Great Lawn were to protect the lawn (which had been renovated) and that the police might not be able to secure the lawn. But it turns out everyone's conspiracy theories......

READINGS: Sebastian Junger (co-owner of the Half King) will be reading there tonight from his latest book, A Death in Belmont. The book ties into Junger's own life eerily - back in 1963 when Junger was a small boy growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts, Bessie Goldberg was murdered down the street from his home. Following the stories of the two different men suspected of committing the crime (and one of them working at Junger's family......

The Parks Department's - and City's - decision to attempt to limit the number of large gatherings, aka rallies, held in Central Park is prompting a rally this Thursday on the Great Lawn, the night before the Parks Department holds a public hearing about the bill. The bill would limit the number of gatherings of over 50,000 to six per year, with four of them already slated for classical music events. Opposition groups claim that......

Even though a judge denied their request to rally in the Central Park, protest group United for Peace and Justice will still be holding their protest march (assembly on Sunday, at 10AM, West 14th Street and 7th Avenue). State Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann said that the UPJ's three month delay in filing a suit was "inexcusable"; the UPJ claims it had been negotiating with the NYPD in the past months. Currently, the UPJ......

With a hearing scheduled for today over whether or not they can protest in Central Park, United for Peace and Justice, the group behind the largest protest timed during the Republican National Convention, has said if they can't rally in Great Lawn, then screw rallying at all. Yes, they are huge, huge babies. Gothamist became unhinged after reading this quote from Jeffrey Fogel, lead lawyer for the protest group, in the Times: "Now that the......

It's a win for the Mayor, Commissioner Kelly, and the Central Park Conservancy: A judge agrees with the city and bars two protest groups from gathering in Central Park for a pre-Republican Convention protest. Two reasons stated: Groups had waited too long to file suit and security concerns. Manhattan Federal Court Judge William H. Pauley suggested other parks to protest in, like Van Cortlandt in the Bronx and Flushing-Corona in Queens, with Judge Pauley calling......

Oh, the joys of having a billionaire mayor! Mayor Bloomberg realizes that one way to people's heart is through tax-free shopping and discounts, so he's hoping that a city- and NYC Visit-sponsored promotion of discounts will encourage people to protest peacefully. Yes, that's right - the city hopes that by offering various discounts to plays, museums, and products, protestors will be more apt to be docile. Clearly, the City has done the due diligence to......

Gothamist doesn't know what the local papers would be covering without the Republican National Convention coming to town, because as the days go by, the stories pile on. The hot button issue is, as ever, security. Mayor Bloomberg had a press conference with Police Commissioner Kelly to hype the pros of having the convention here ("This will be a unique opportunity for NYC to advertise itself"), although it came after they spoke to private security......

The big protest group, United for Peace and Justice, has agreed to protest and rally at along Seventh Avenue and the West Side Highway during the Republican National Convention. This site, proposed by the NYPD in an ultimatum of sorts, is less than ideal as it's far from the convention, but UPJ said, "The clock is ticking; we need to move on. So, we decided to take the high road here." Because UPJ has agreed......

There is still no place for the big protest during the Republican National Convention. The City is saying that protest group United for Peace and Justice is being unreasonable in wanting to use Central Park and thus making it hard for permits to smaller groups to be issued, with the Mayor saying,Look, there is one group that is keeping everybody else from getting permits. The name of that group is United for Peace and Justice.......

When is the Philharmonic holding their annual park concerts? Shouldn't that be happening soon? Shauna, Long Island City One of the great things about "summering" in the city are the many free cultural events scheduled throughout New York. So mark your calendars for July 13 - 19. That's when the New York Philharmonic will present Concerts in the Park for what the website tells us is the 40th summer. The concerts kick off on......

Jessica Mintz, Wall Street Journal...

- The Post reports that security for the Republican Natinal Convention will cost $29 million more - for a total of $76 million - than the Bloomberg administration thought. Gothamist wants to know why it's so surprising that it would be that expensive, considering that thousands of Republicans AND the President will be coming to New York for a couple days. That says "Security up the wazoo," not to mention "gridlock," to us. Anyway, Police......