River To River® Festival Launches 2012 Summer Season in Lower Manhattan

Philip Glass Ensemble. Trisha Brown Dance Company. Bang on a Can Marathon. Eddie Palmieri. Alarm Will Sound. George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic. Merrill Garbus (TuNe-YaRdS). Patrick Watson. And many, more.

These are just some of the performances you can catch – and all for free – at this year’s River To River® Festival, Lower Manhattan’s annual summer arts festival. Now in its second decade, and with a new curatorial focus, the Festival takes place every day from June 17 to July 15.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council works with founding partners Arts Brookfield, Battery Park City Authority, The Seaport, and new content partners to present music and dance performances, film, theater, visual art, ideas, experiences, and family programs – and all in Lower Manhattan.

The Downtown Alliance is a major sponsor of the Festival. And this year, the Downtown Alliance is providing the official mobile app for the Festival.  Click HERE to download our mobile app (or search for “DowntownNYC” in the iTunes App Store), visit the Downtown Alliance’s website or visit the River To River® Festival website for more details about programming.

Bang On A Can Marathon
Presented by River To River Festival®, Arts Brookfield and Bang on a Can.
Sunday, June 17 | 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
World Financial Center Winter Garden | 220 Vesey Street

Bang on a Can returns with its incomparable, 12-hour-plus super-mix of genre-defying music featuring 150 astounding musicians and composers from throughout the world.

Philip Glass Ensemble: A Retrospective
Presented by River To River Festival® and Battery Park City Authority.
Wednesday, June 20 | 7:00 PM
Rockefeller Park | River Terrace and Warren Street

The Ensemble performs a retrospective program of the legendary composer’s music. Youth ensemble Face the Music opens the event.

Eddie Palmieri
Presented by Battery Park City Authority.
Thursday, June 21 | 7:00 PM
Rockefeller Park | River Terrace and Warren Street

The legendary Grammy Award-winning bandleader performs Salsa and Latin Jazz arrangements.

Le Grand Continental™
Presented by River To River Festival® and The Joyce Theater.
June 22 & 23 | 7:00 PM June 24 | 2:00 PM
Piers 16 & 17 |The Seaport

Two hundred amateur and non-professional dancers come partake in the U.S. premiere of the Montreal-based choreographer Sylvain Émard’s Le Grand Continental, which combines festive line dancing with the fluidity and expressiveness of contemporary dance.

Locos Por Juana
Presented by Arts Brookfield.
Tuesday, July 10 | 5:30 PM
World Financial Center Plaza

This party band with an Afro-Colombian heart and soul creates a perfect urban-alternative musical experience.