Results tagged “libertystatepark”

Remember that festival over in Liberty State Park, NJ last summer featuring a little band called Radiohead? Well, it's back. All Points West is embarking on its second year and they've just announced their initial lineup (which now includes comedy). Looks like the East Coast may have officially gotten its Coachella, and you might be headed to Jerz for a few nights.

Saturday's weather was immaculate for day two of the All Points West music festival in Liberty State Park, New Jersey; unusually cool and crisp, with a fresh breeze off the harbor and spectacular cloud formations as far as the eye could see. Saturday was also the first day of the festival to sell out, and the park was significantly more crowded than Friday.

Aside from a passing shower in the afternoon, the weather at Liberty State Park was unseasonably mild and sunny yesterday for day one of the "inaugural" All Points West rock festival. The grassy grounds were populated by misting tents, American Spirit free cigarette lounges, a healthy variety of food vendors, a Sony PlayStation tent, and the whimsical art that's become de rigueur for these sorts of things, with curiosities ranging from Christopher Janney's Sonic Forest to the Solar Pavilion shade sculpture designed with "a zero-waste mandate."

This weekend All Points West brings the summer festival circuit to our area (albeit to New Jersey), and if you plan on making the trek, here are some helpful tips.

There’s usually not much mystery to a Be Your Own Pet show. You get about a half-hour of nonstop, rapid-fire post-adolescent punk, with lots of shouting and shimmying from Jemina Pearl. There are far worse ways to spend an early evening in February. This Wednesday, however, things went down a bit different. About halfway through the set, some older creep started talking back to the charismatic young front woman between songs. It seemed all in good fun, with the tiny singer (jokingly?) bragging about how she’s been kicked out of bars in Nashville for fisticuffs. The dude then gets up on stage, makes some sort of kissy move towards her, and promptly gets smacked across the face HARD as the rest of the band jumped in to take him down. So yea, it Got Awkward real fast. The band brushed themselves off, shook hands with the pervy perp to call a truce with the intruder, and continued on with the rest of their set. Interesting night, to say the least. (pic via Ryan Dombal's flickr)

New York City officials are planning for a Dunkirk-like evacuation of Manhattan island in the case of an emergency. In the early days of World War II, a "bathtub navy" was assembled between Dunkirk, France and Dover, England, in order to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Continent to safer ground as the Nazis advanced across France. Hundreds of small craft were sent across the English Channel to ferry stranded and cornered British troops back to England.

Last week we were tipped off to a new, nearby festival temporarily dubbed Coachella East, because of it's relation to the mammoth west coast fest and their shared event producer. Now we learn the proper name, All Points West, and some more details from the press release:

The three-day event is set for August 8, 9 and 10, 2008 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. This historic location offers panoramic views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Manhattan skyline. The festival’s name is inspired by the area’s rich history, particularly Ellis Island and the NJ Central Railroad terminal located on the festival site, where people boarded trains for All Points West.

First thought: the dates match up exactly with the Vineland concert, putting the two in direct competition. The organizers promise more details about ticket info and lineup in the coming weeks, though Paul Tollett (one organizer involved) mentioned that "Radiohead played there in 2001 and there hasn't been a music event there since." Is that a hint Paul? Time will tell, and in the interim NJ.com says they anticipate crowds as large as 30,000 per day (about half the amount Coachella now sees). It's also important to note there will be no camping, so concert-goers will have to come and go each day. Will you make the trip to Jerz?

Goldenvoice concerts, the people who bring the West Coast Coachella each year, are now planning a similar concert for us East Coasters. And it's set to be right in our very own backyard. Sort of.

So, yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the first Son of Sam killings and today is another sad day in local history (*cough* Jersey *cough*). On July 31, 1916 Black Tom island, which was next to Liberty Island, literally blew up and off the map (what was left of the island is now part of the mainland in Liberty State Park). The island was a major munitions depot. And by major we mean "2,000 tons of munitions parked in freight cars and pierside barges." After midnight small fires started on some of the piers and then began to grow. Around 2:08 a.m. the munitions started to explode.

If you haven't made friends with someone who has East River and/or Statue of Liberty waterfront views yet, we have some answers. The Macy's Fireworks Spectacular has 3 different fireworks launching sites this year (here's the map) - on the East River between 23rd and 42nd streets, between Liberty and Ellis Islands, and south of South Street Seaport. The fireworks are set to light up the sky over the East River around 9pm.

Gothamist's suggestions for July 4th from last year.

kite aficionados out there. Honestly, Gothamist can't believe the hipsters haven't reclaimed lovable, kitschy kiteflying as their weekend activity of choice. (It's the logical next step after rollerskating.) It probably has something to do with the near-impossible task of finding a safe place to fly a kite in the city.