BROOKLYN, NY (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Live Nation will be bringing indie rock to the previously defunct McCarren Park Pool in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, after the city awarded the company the booking contract in gratitude for Live Nation’s $200,000 cleanup of the abandoned space.
Bloc Party and Secret Machines will be the first acts to play at Brooklyn’s latest rock venue on July 29 – the first in a series of seven shows this summer.
Neighborhood activists have been pushing for years for the pool to be restored to the glory it once enjoyed in the late 1930s. They hope converting the space into a temporary concert venue will lead to improvements and fund-raising for the estimated $40 million restoration.
“We’re not giving up on it,” Community Board 1 Chairman Vincent Abate told the New York Daily News. “It’s the best that we can get right now, as long as the money is directed toward building a new pool.”
McCarren Park Pool opened in 1936 and was large enough to hold 6,000 swimmers. It closed in 1984, and became a graffiti covered, abandoned park, that many have looked to as the areas most important possible renovation.
Other shows Live Nation has booked for the summer include a free performance on July 30th by Of Montreal, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Sonic Youth on August 11th and 12th, a free performance by Deerhoof on August 13th, Iron & Wine on August 17th, and Neko Case, Joanna Newsom and Martha Wainwright on August 24th. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
