If you’ve been living in New York long enough, then you know that four times a year the city’s streets get particularly lit and rowdy: Pride, Lunar New Year, the West Indian Day Parade and the Puerto Rican Day Parade. 

In an event that sounds like it will be mind-numbingly rambunctious, Red Bull is bringing all four of those parades together for one day on June 1 in a “Culture Clash” that promises incendiary DJ sets and performances. All the parades will compete for the crowd’s adoration.

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The “Culture Clash” was inspired by Jamaican sound system culture, in which DJs load a truck with speakers and blast music on the streets for community-wide turn ups. The winner of the competition will be the parade that gets the loudest response from the crowd. 

The clash, which is happening at 1 Noble Street in Greenpoint, will involve four rounds where each parade can play the music they want and bring out performers. In round one, the parades will give an overview of their sound. In round two, each will showcase the community and history behind their party. In Round three, each parade interprets the same New York-related song and applies it to their parade’s culture. In Round four, only remixes and special guest performers will be allowed for one final banger. 

Playing the same song twice will not be allowed and will lead to a disqualification. The enthusiasm of the crowd—and thus, the winner—will be measured through a decibel reader that will gauge the crowd’s noise for five seconds. 

Red Bull chose four different groups and collectives to represent each of the iconic parades. The Pride Parade will be repped by Papi Juice, a beloved Brooklyn-based collective that celebrates the lives of queer and trans people of color. The Lunar New Year Parade will be taken over by the Eastern Standard Times, an organization that highlights young Asian-American voices. The West Indian Parade will be dominated by No Long Talk, which champions the preservation of authentic Jamaican music and culture throughout the city. And finally, the Puerto Rican Day Parade will be spearheaded by Remezcla, a publication for and by young Latino creatives.  

The clash will be hosted by TikTok sensation Devon Halbal and Interview Magazine editor Mel Ottenberg.

Best of all, the event is completely free to the public, but you do need a ticket to secure a spot. Tickets will become available to  on April 23, so make sure to check out their website for updates. 

* This article was originally published here

If you haven’t yet had your fill of Do-si-dos, Thin Mints or Tagalongs, you’ll want to act fast! This is the last week to buy Girl Scout Cookies in NYC for the season!

Between 10am and 4pm, from April 20 to 27, you can grab your final boxes of cookies in NYC during “Encore Week.” Girl Scouts will set up booths in specific locations across the city, including Central Park, Grand Central and Washington Square Park, so they can sell 100,000 boxes to support its programming and troop activities, the organization said in a press release.

Here’s where you can find them:

• Grand Central, The Free Speech Area
• Dominick Hotel, Urban Plaza
• Central Park, 64th and 5th
• Madison Square Park, 24th and 5th
• Brooklyn Children’s Museum 

• Washington Square Park, Holley Plaza 

• Union Square, North End

“We’re thrilled to be able to give New Yorkers a final chance to grab their cookies this year before it’s too late,” said Meridith Maskara, CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater New York, in a statement. “Our Girl Scouts have worked hard this season to drive sales and learn key lessons in business and entrepreneurship, so I know they will be equally successful in our first-ever ‘Encore Week,’ with an ambitious goal of selling 100,000 boxes. We’ll have all of the cookie classics, so make sure to stop by!”

Cookies in New York City cost $7 a box. A portion of the sale of each box will go directly to Troop 6000, which launched in 2017. It serves families living in temporary housing and this past year, the troop expanded to serve the influx of asylum seekers that came into New York City.

What are you waiting for?

* This article was originally published here

Even if you’ve been just about everywhere in New York City, you likely haven’t been to Floyd Bennett Field in the far reaches of Brooklyn. This once historic airport played an important part in aviation history, but its now-dilapidated airplane hangars fade away as relics from another era.

To artists, though, these worn-out facades in a dark, unspoiled stretch of land make for a perfect canvas. As part of the first-ever Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival, artists will showcase massive video artworks on the side of the hangars, making for a truly dazzling spectacle. Other events during the free festival, which runs April 19-21, include a silent disco, live music, lawn games, and hangar tours.

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The weekend-long celebration merges art, architecture, and history, showcasing the talent of 24 exceptional artists, including Derrick Adams, Peter Burr, Eto Otitigbe, and Ryan Hartley Smith. Each artist will unveil original works, creatively video mapped onto the 11,000-square-foot facade of two monumental airplane hangars. The video mapping is so detailed that it blurs the line between real life and the theoretical.  

Each artist put their own spin on the digital projects. Adams’ work, for example, highlights topographies and waterways of the region through an aerial adventure. Burr’s piece evokes a labyrinth, while Smith created a love letter to the Rockaways, especially the historically queer section of Jacob Riis beach. Otitigbe’s piece uses video mapping to pull apart the architecture of the hangars themselves and imagine possibilities for the future.

Indeed, this festival is just the beginning for the area, as a major restoration project is set to begin to rehab the structures. Once that’s done, the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy will turn the space into an Innovation Hub that includes research and development facilities focused on nature-based solutions and coastal resilience. 

“The festival is a chance to demonstrate our exciting plans for reactivation of Floyd Bennett Field,” Tom Secunda, chairman of the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy said in a press release. 

Event organizers hope the festival will bring attention to the new projects and energy at the site. 

“The event highlights the natural beauty and historical significance of Floyd Bennett Field, and celebrates the promising future of these historic hangars,” Terri Carta, executive director of the Conservancy added. “We hope that the Festival’s site-specific artworks will draw attention to the forthcoming rehabilitation and reactivation of these significant structures – Art Deco masterpieces themselves, while simultaneously engaging a broad public audience in something really cool and fun!”

In addition to admiring the incredible artwork, the event hosted by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy also includes activities for all ages. Expect an artists marketplace, a sculpture, and musical performances Wild Yaks, Sesame Flyers Steel Pan Ensemble, and Batalá. Other featured artists include Matt Bruinooge, Alessandro Echevarria, Donghwi Han, Christina Lee, Hanlin Liang, Dakota Ray, Ti Xu, and Phoenix Yang. Here’s a full schedule of activities. 

* This article was originally published here