this week in music

MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK SUMMER 2017

make music ny

Make Music New York is back for its eleventh summer season, celebrating the longest day of the year with more than a thousand free concerts across the city on June 21. There are participatory events, live music in parks and plazas, unique gatherings in unusual places, and just about anything else you can think of. Below are only a handful of the highlights, arranged chronologically.

49 Flutes, fortieth anniversary of John Cage’s “49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs,” 147 locations, dawn and dusk

Inside the Bird Chorus, with composer David Rothenberg on clarinet and Derek Gripper on guitar at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 5:30 am; Jordan McLean on trumpet at Cherry Hill in Central Park, 5:30 am; Dave Kadden on oboe at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve, 9:00 am; Michael Pestel on woodwinds at Wave Hill, 9:00 am; Volker Goetz on trumpet at Fresh Kills Park, 7:00 pm; Bobby Sanabria & Project X featuring Jeff Lederer at Crotona Park, 7:00 pm

The Ella Fitzgerald Piano Bar, Harlem and East Harlem, Apollo Theater, 11:00; Red Rooster, 12:30; Sister’s Cuisine, 2:15; Uptown Grand Central Community Plaza, 3:45; and National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 5:15

Street Studios, with Miles Francis, Harman Audio 527 Madison Ave., 11:00 am – 3:00 pm; with Kid Koi, Gotham Market at the Ashland, 590 Fulton St., Brooklyn, 12:30-3:30; with Aaron Lazansky, Tomasia Kastner, and students from NYC Parks’ Computer Resource Centers, Andrew Freedman Home, 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, 4:00-7:00; with Angus Tarnawsky, Skill Mill NYC, 949 Amsterdam Ave., 5:00-8:00; with Manhattan Producers Alliance, La Plaza de Las Americas, West 175th St. & Broadway 5:15-7:00

Fourth annual Porch Stomp, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 12 noon – 5:00 pm

Joe’s Pub Block Party, with Jose Conde, 12 noon; Fumi Tanakadate & the Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center Ensemble, 1:00; Hervé, 2:00; Svetlana & the Delancey Five, 3:00; Vuyo Sotashe, 4:00; Batalá, 5:00, Astor Place Plaza

South Shore Lawn Party, the Kreischer Mansion, Charleston, Staten Island, 12 noon – 9:00 pm

Gérard Grisey’s Le Noir de l’Étoile, American Museum of Natural History, Hall of the Universe, 12:30

Mass Appeals: Electronic Instruments, NYU, 35 West Fourth St., Room 303, 3:00; Djembes, Mullaly Park, 5:00 pm; Harmonicas, Central Park’s Pond Lawn, 5:30; Ukuleles, Pilgrim Hill, Central Park, 5:30; Guitars, Union Square Park, 6:00; Mandolins, Theodore Roosevelt Park, 6:00; French Horns, Madison Square Park, 6:30; Accordions, Bryant Park, 7:00; Cellos, Bushwick Inlet Park, 7:00; Recorders, Straus Park, 7:00

Concerto for Buildings, works by Daniel Goode (“Concerto for Buildings”), Lainie Fefferman (“Cloud Noodles”), Miguel Bolivar (“Going Up”), Devon Cupo (“Quit While You Exist”), and Christian Rivera (“When I See You Again”), with Mantra Youth Percussion and Rahway High School Wind Ensemble, performed on eight buildings on Greene St. between Grand & Broome, 5:00

On the Waterfront, with duo pianists Karl Larsson and Hitomi Honda, 4:30, and Mannes Prep students, Pier I, Hudson River Gateway off West Seventieth St., 5:00

Offerings and Songs to the Solstice Sun, with Irka Mateo, Anne Loftus Playground, Fort Tryon Park, 5:00

WTC @ WTC, The Well-Tempered Clavier, with Athena Adamopoulos, Kathy Chen, Larry Edoff, Melody Fader, Joan Forsyth, Leslie Dobrenski Frost, Alfredo Garcia, Jr., Vadim Ghin, Liam Kaplan, Kingsley Matthew, Blair McMillen, Barbara Podgurski. Lara Saldanha, Eleanor Sandresky, Qian Shen, Irene Tse, Jenny Undercofler. Anna Vinnitsky, and the students of Joan Forsyth, Eugenia Glivinski, Adrienne Kim, Nathaniel LaNasa, Elena Leonova, Tatjana Rankovich, Gena Raps, and Emily White, 9/11 Memorial plaza, 5:00 – 8:00

The Mp3 Experiment Number Fourteen, Battery Park, 7:00

Sxip Shirley’s The Gauntlet, with Choral Chameleon, West Dalehead Arch, Central Park, 7:00

RIVER TO RIVER: NIGHT AT THE MUSEUMS

night at the museums

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUMS
Multiple downtown locations
Tuesday, June 210, free, 4:00 – 8:00
lmcc.net
nightatthemuseums.com

Last Tuesday, the Museum Mile Festival offered free admission to seven institutions along Fifth Ave. between 82nd and 105th Sts. This Tuesday, June 20, fifteen downtown organizations will open their doors for free. As part of the River to River Festival, which includes experimental dance, theater, music, and more through June 25, people are invited inside to see exhibitions and special programs as well as join walking tours. The participating organizations (with current exhibitions and special events) are the African Burial Ground National Monument (ranger presentations and screening of Our Time at Last), Federal Hall National Memorial (ranger tours, George Washington, Early American Music by Linda Russell), Fraunces Tavern Museum (“Dunsmore: Illustrating the American Revolutionary War,” “Lafayette,” live music by Rose Tree), the Museum of American Finance (“For the Love of Money: Blacks on US Currency,” hourly tours), the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (“My Name Is…The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf,” “Eyewitness: Photographs by B. A. Van Sise,” 6:30 talk on Jewish communities in China), the China Institute (“Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity, Treasures of the Han Dynasty from Xuzhou,” live music), the National Archives at New York City, the National Museum of the American Indian (“Akunnittinni: A Kinngait Family Portrait,” “Circle of Dance,” live performances by Martha Redbone), the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the NYC Municipal Archives (building tours with MA photographer Matthew Minor and MA commissioner), the 9/11 Tribute Center, Poets House (“Poetry Since 1912: Books, Issues, & Ephemera from the Poetry Foundation,” literary scavenger hunt), the Skyscraper Museum (“Ten and Taller, 1874-1900,” tour with founding director Carol Willis), and the South Street Seaport Museum (“Street of Ships: The Port and Its People,” Waterfront History Walking Tour, Bowne C. Stationers and Printers live demonstration).

LOFTOPERA: PERGOLESI & VIVALDI

loftopera

The Muse
350 Moffat St.
Friday – Saturday, June 16-17, 23- 24, 30, and July 1, 7-8, $30, 8:30
www.loftopera.com
themusebrooklyn.com

LoftOpera was founded in 2013 by Bed-Stuy twentysomethings Dean Buck, Daniel Ellis-Ferris, and Brianna Maury to bring the hoity-toity art form down to earth in professional and affordable site-specific productions in unusual spaces. The company has presented Verdi’s Macbeth in the MAST Chocolate Factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at LightSpace Studios, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in the Green Building, Puccini’s La Bohème in the 1896, and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni in the Gowanus Loft. LoftOpera is now offering staged performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, along with works by his eighteenth-century contemporary Antonio Vivaldi, at the Muse, a warehouse performance space in Bushwick. Running Friday and Saturday nights from June 16 to July 8, the show, directed and choreographed by John de los Santos, features soprano Heather Buck and countertenor Randall Scotting, dancers Constance Nicolas, Julie Carter, Megan Guinta, and Taylor Tucker, costumes by Christian Joy, and lighting by Joan Racho-Jansen. The orchestra, led by concertmaster Ravenna Lipchik, consists of Alicia Bisha, Michael Mandrin, Amy Gardner, and Jessica McJunkins on violin, Jules Lai, Eva Gerard, and Dan McCarthy on viola, Eric Allen, Jessica Wang, and Madeleine Bouissou on cello, and Ben Murphy and Pat Swoboda on bass, conducted by music director Brian Gilling. Tickets are a mere $30 and come with complementary water; patrons can also purchase ice-cream sandwiches, beer, and wine and enjoy them at their seats. It’s far more informal than going to the Met; there’s even loud music during pauses and intermissions to maintain a kind of unstuffy party atmosphere. Stabat Mater will be followed in September by Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and in December by Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

NYC PRIDE 2017

VIP Rooftop Party is a highlight of NYC Pride Week

Multiple locations
June 16-25, free – $625
www.nycpride.org

Showing one’s pride is more than just using a rainbow flag emoji on Facebook. You can wave the flag much higher by attending any of these special pride events, the first Pride Week held under President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence; as always, the ticketed events are selling out fast, so you better act quickly if you want to shake it up at some pretty crazy parties.

Friday, June 16
The Rally, Foley Square, free, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Sunday, June 18
Pride Luminaries Brunch, with special guests, the Garden at David Burke, 23 Grand St., $60, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Monday, June 19
OutCinema, screening of Cherry Pop (Assaad Yacoub, 2016) and open-bar after-party, with Bob the Drag Queen, Detox, and Tempest DuJour in person, SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd St., $30, 7:30 pm

Tuesday, June 20
Family Movie Night: The Lion King (Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff, 1994), hosted by Miss Richfield 1981, Pier 45, Hudson River Park at Christopher St., free (reserved seating $50), 8:30 pm

Wednesday, June 21
Village Voice Pride Awards, hosted by Alan Cumming, Capitale, 130 Bowery, 6:00 pm

Friday, June 23
Moxie, with Mary Lambert and DJs Mary Mac and Susan Levine, Taj II Lounge, 48 West 21st St., $25-$48, 4:00 – 11:00 pm

Fantasy, with DJs Ralphi Rosario and Eddie Martinez and special secret performances, Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th St., $39-$79, 11:00 pm – 5:00 am

Friday, June 23
through
Sunday, June 25
Pride Island, with Deborah Cox, DJ Lina, and Patti Labelle on Friday, Tegan and Sara, Years & Years, Roisin Murphy, Gallant, Dimitri from Paris, and Occupy the Disco on Saturday, and DJ Scott Martin, DJ Cindel, Chus & Ceballos, and Nelly Furtado on Sunday, Pier 26, Hudson River Park at Laight St., $35-$180

This year’s Fantasy party promises special secret performances at the Highline Ballroom

Saturday, June 24
Youth Pride, with interactive games, activities, and live entertainment, free with advance registration, 14th St. Park, 12 noon – 6:00 pm

VIP Rooftop Party, with DJs Alex Acosta, GSP, and Hannah and secret acts all night long, Hudson Terrace, 621 West 46th St., $69-$85, 2:00 – 10:00 pm

Teaze (formerly known as Rapture on the River), exclusive party for women only, with DJs Taryn Manning and Tatiana, the DL, 95 Delancey St., $48-$80, 4:00 – 10:00 pm

Masterbeat: Game Show, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th St., $120-$140, 10:00 pm – 6:00 am

Sunday, June 25
PrideFest, twenty-fourth annual street fair with music, food, merchandise, and live performances by LeAnn Rimes and many others, Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. & West 14th St., free (special packages $10-$625), 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

The March, with grand marshals the American Civil Liberties Union, Brooke Guinan, Krishna Stone, and Geng Le, Lavender Line from 36th St. & Fifth Ave. to Christopher & Greenwich Sts., free, 12 noon

Femme Fatale, women’s rooftop party with DJs Nikki Lions, Mary Mac, and Tatiana, Hudson Terrace, 621 West 46th St., $25-$60, 4:00 – 10:00 pm

RIVER TO RIVER 2017

Maria Hassabi presented an informal preview of her latest work this summer on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The latest iteration of Maria Hassabi’s Staged series will move be performed in City Hall Park as part of the River to River Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations downtown
June 14-25, free
www.rivertorivernyc.com
lmcc.net

The best free multidisciplinary arts festival of the summer, River to River packs a whole lot into a narrow amount of time. Sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, this year’s activities, which, as always, focus on more experimental presentations, take place June 14-25 at such locations as Governors Island, Federal Hall, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Fulton Center, City Hall Park, and other downtown areas. While everything is free, some performances require advance registration because of space considerations. In addition to the below events, Katja Novitskova’s “EARTH POTENTIAL” Public Art Fund exhibition opens June 22 in City Hall Park, photographer Kamau Ware’s “Black Gotham Experience” interactive storytelling project will pop up at various places throughout the fest, LMCC’s Open Studios allows visitors the chance to meet with dozens of artists, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s “A Supple Perimeter” will be on view at LMCC’s Arts Center and Movie Theater Exterior on Governors Island.

Wednesday, June 14, 6:00
Wednesday, June 21, 8:00
Sunday, June 25, 7:00
The Dance Cartel: R2R Living Rooms, with DJ Average Jo and special guests, Pier A Harbor House
One of the most energetic companies around, the Dance Cartel will host a trio of live music and dance performances at the River to River Festival hub, with plenty of audience participation.

Thursday, June 15, 3:00 & 6:00
Monday, June 19, 3:00
Netta Yerushalmy: Paramodernities #2 and #3, National Museum of the American Indian
South Carolina–born choreographer and performer Netta Yerushalmy’s “Paramodernities” series deconstructs landmark dance works within the framework of modernity. For River to River, she will present Paramodernities #2, examining Martha Graham’s Night Journey, and Paramodernities #3, investigating Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, accompanied by scholars who will take part in public discussions. The seventy-five-minute production will move around inside the National Museum of the American Indian.

Thursday, June 15, 7:00
Saturday, June 17, 7:00
Sunday, June 18, 7:00
A Marvelous Order, Fulton Center
Joshua Frankel, Judd Greenstein, Will Rawls, and Tracy K. Smith have collaborated on the multimedia opera A Marvelous Order, which delves into the famous fight between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs over the future development of New York City. For the River to River Festival, they will present a twenty-five-minute excerpt at the Fulton Center, with Eliza Bagg, Tomás Cruz, Lucy Dhegrae, Christopher Herbert, and Dashon Burton as Robert Moses and live music by NOW Ensemble, conducted by David Bloom.

Friday, June 16, 6:00
Amir Elsaffar: Rivers of Sound — Not Two, the Plaza at 28 Liberty
American jazz trumpeter and composer Amir Elsaffar celebrates the release of his latest record, Not Two (New Amsterdam, June 16), with a two-hour performance at the Plaza at 28 Liberty featuring his seventeen-piece Rivers of Sound orchestra.

Friday, June 16, 3:30
Saturday, June 17, 3:30
Sunday, June 18, 3:30
Jodi Melnick: Moat, Fort Jay, Governors Island
Choreographer, dancer, and teacher Jodi Melnick, who has said, “I am truly, madly, deeply in love with movement,” has teamed up with visual artist John Monti for Moat, a sixty-minute site-specific performance taking place in the moat that surrounds historic Fort Jay on Governors Island.

Beth Gill’s Catacomb will be performed in Federal Hall for the River to River Festival (photo by Brian Rogers)

Saturday, June 17, 8:00
Sunday, June 18, 8:00
Monday, June 19, 8:00
Beth Gill: Catacomb, Federal Hall
In May 2016, Bessie Award–winning choreographer Beth Gill presented the site-specific Catacomb at the Chocolate Factory, a dreamlike physical and psychological exploration of what we see and who we are. For River to River, the aching sixty-minute performance moves to historic Federal Hall.

Saturday, June 17, 12 noon – 6:00
Sunday, June 18, 12 noon – 6:00
Saturday, June 24, 12 noon – 6:00
Sunday, June 25, 12 noon – 6:00
The Set-Up: Island Ghost Sleep Princess Time Story Show, the Arts Center at Governors Island
For five years, Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey have been collaborating with men and women from multiple dance disciplines, presenting unique performances that push the boundaries of the movement arts. Their project now culminates in a grand finale on Governors Island, with dance masters I Nyoman Catra (Balinese Topeng), Proeung Chhieng (Cambodian), Junko Fisher (Okinawan), Saya Lei (Mandalay-style, classical Burmese), Jean-Christophe Paré (French baroque), Kapila Venu (Indian Kutiyattam), and Heni Winahyuningsih (Javanese refined) and musicians Jonathan Bepler, Reiko Fueting, and Megan Schubert. “Many dances on an ISLAND, a GHOST of what they were, having lost details during a long SLEEP but nevertheless the PRINCESS of their destiny. This TIME it is one STORY, full of fortuitous meetings, grave errors, and happy misunderstandings. It’s a SHOW, folks!” Cardona and Lacey explain. You can see the complete schedule here.

Monday, June 19, 6:00
Tuesday, June 20, 2:00
Wednesday, June 21, 2:00
Faye Driscoll: Thank You for Coming: Play, Broad and Wall Sts.
At last year’s LMCC Open Studios on Governors Island, the endlessly inventive Faye Driscoll offered a work-in-progress showing of the second part of her participatory “Thank You for Coming” series, which began in 2014 with Thank You for Coming: Attendance Play later moved to the BAM Fisher. She now revisits Play, staging a forty-minute version at the intersection of Broad and Wall Sts.

Tuesday, June 20, 4:00 – 8:00
Night at the Museums
Many Lower Manhattan museums and cultural institutions will stay open late on June 20, offering free entry to historic sites along with special programs. Among the participants are the African Burial Ground National Monument, China Institute, Federal Hall National Memorial, Fraunces Tavern Museum, Museum of American Finance, Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, National Archives at New York City, National Museum of the American Indian, National September 11 Memorial Museum (advance RSVP required), 9/11 Tribute Center, NYC Municipal Archives, Poets House, the Skyscraper Museum, and the South Street Seaport Museum.

Wednesday, June 21, 5:00
Thursday, June 22, 3:00
Friday, June 23, 3:00
Marjani Forté-Saunders: Memoirs of a . . . Unicorn, Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport Museum
Pasadena-born, Harlem based dancer and choreographer Marjani Forté-Saunders, who previously was in the Urban Bush Women Dance Company, brings her solo Memoirs of a . . . Unicorn to the South Street Seaport Museum, a collaboration with media designer Meena Murugesan and sound designer Everett Saunders that relates to the history of Black American magic.

Thursday, June 22, 7:00
Friday, June 23, 7:00
Saturday, June 24, 7:00
Sunday, June 25, 5:00
En Garde Arts: Harbored, Winter Garden, Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St.
En Garde Arts, which was founded by Anne Hamburger to “catalyze social change” through immersive theater, will stage the sixty-minute site-specific collage play Harbored, about Willa Cather, Lewis & Clark, and Cather’s character Ántonia. The piece, featuring more than fifty performers, is written and directed by Jimmy Maize, with an original score by Heather Christian sung by the Downtown Voices Choir and movement by Wendy Seyb. During the day, you can share your immigration story with them and it just might be incorporated into that night’s show.

Friday, June 23, 6:00
Sunday, June 25, 6:00
Maria Hassabi: Staged? (2016) — undressed, City Hall Park
Last summer, Maria Hassabi presented Movement #2 on the High Line, a dance performed by Simon Courchel, Hristoula Harakas, Molly Lieber, and Oisín Monaghan as people passed by. That morphed into Staged, which ran at the Kitchen in October. Now Hassabi is bringing Staged? (2016) — undressed to City Hall Park, where four dancers will move around Katja Novitskova’s “EARTH POTENTIAL” exhibition.

MUSEUM MILE FESTIVAL 2017

museum mile

Multiple locations on Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 105th Sts.
Tuesday, June 13, free, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
www.museummilefestival.org

The fortieth annual Museum Mile Festival will take place on Tuesday, June 13, as seven arts institutions along Fifth Avenue between 82nd and 105th Sts. open their doors for free between 6:00 and 9:00. There will be live outdoor performances by Fogo Azul Bateria Feminina, DJ Shabbakano, Carlos Jesus Martinez Dominguez & Leslie Jimenezin, Banda de lost Muertos, Silly Billy, and Sarah King and the Smoke Rings in addition to face painting, art and dance workshops, chalk drawing, and more. The participating museums (with at least one of their current shows listed here) are El Museo del Barrio (“Nkame: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón,” “uptown: nasty women / bad hombres”), the Museum of the City of New York (“New York at Its Core,” “AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism”), the Jewish Museum (“Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry,” “The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin”), the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (“The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s,” “Esperanza Spalding Selects”), the Guggenheim (“Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim,” “The Hugo Boss Prize 2016: Anicka Yi, Life Is Cheap”), the Neue Galerie (“Austrian Masterworks from the Neue Galerie New York”), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Irving Penn: Centennial,” “Lygia Pape: A Multitude of Forms”), along with presentations by the Little Orchestra Society, the New York Academy of Medicine, the 92nd St. Y, the Church of the Heavenly Rest, and Asia Society. Don’t try to do too much, because it can get rather crowded; just pick one or two exhibitions in one or two museums and enjoy.

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY 2017

There’s plenty of smokin’ good ’cue at annual BBQ block party in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 10, and Sunday, June 11, pay per plate, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Fast Pass: $150; Big Rig VIP Pass: $275
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

The immensely popular and ridiculously crowded Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is upon us, as pitmasters from around the country gather in Madison Square Park and serve up some damn fine BBQ. The fifteenth annual event, being held June 10-11, features some old favorites as well as some up-and-comers: Ash Fulk of Hill Country BBQ in California (Brisket with House Pickle), Bill Durney of Hometown Bar-b-que in Brooklyn (Smoked Beef Short Ribs with Pickles & Onions), Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Alabama (Pulled Pork Sandwich with Spicy Mustard Coleslaw), Garry Roark and Leslie Roark Scott of Ubon’s Barbeque in Mississippi (Mississippi Chicken Wings & Sausage with Bloody Mary Cucumber Salad), Jean-Paul Bourgeois of Blue Smoke in Manhattan (Brisket Burnt Ends with Chipotle Barbecue Sauce & Summer Corn Salad), Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth of Root & Bone in Manhattan (Corn3, Watermelon3), Joe Duncan of Baker’s Ribs in Dallas (St. Louis Ribs with Jalapeño Coleslaw), John Stage of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Manhattan (St. Louis Ribs with Beans), John Wheeler of Memphis Barbecue Co. in Mississippi (Baby Back Ribs with Beans), Jonathan Fox and Justin Fox of Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q in Atlanta (Brisket, Jalapeño-Cheddar Sausage & Potato Salad), Mike Mills and Amy Mills of 17th St. BBQ in Murphysboro (Baby Back Ribs with Tangy Pit Beans), Nick Pihakis of Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham (Smoked Pork Hot Links with Pimento Cheese), Pat Martin of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville (West Tennessee Whole Hog with Coleslaw), Scott Roberts of Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in Texas (Brisket with Sausage and Sesame Coleslaw), Rodney Scott of Rodney Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Charleston (St. Louis Ribs with Coleslaw), and Sam Jones of Skylight Inn/Sam Jones BBQ in North Carolina (Eastern North Carolina Whole Hog Sandwich with Sweet Slaw), with desserts ($6) from the Original Fried Pie Shop and Sugaree’s Bakery.

The lines can get extremely long, so the best way to enjoy the event is to go with a bunch of friends, get on different lines, and then gather somewhere in the park to devour your meal. (Last year, each plate of ’cue was ten bucks.) The FastPass is back, where for $150 you get access for you and one guest to the express lanes and $125 worth of food, drink, and merchandise; the Big Rig VIP Package grants you that in addition to access to the VIP tent and private VIP area with open bar and snacks, for $275. Saturday’s music lineup consists of National Reserve at 12 noon, Dead Horses at 1:30, Adam Ezra Group at 3:00, Antibalas at 4:30, and DJ Amira Nader all day, while Sunday’s roster boasts Walker Lukens at 12 noon, Emily Wolfe at 1:30, Cris Jacobs at 3:00, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes at 4:30, and DJ Vinyl Ranch all day.