Winter’s Eve Lincoln Square Festival 2018

The 19th annual Winter’s Eve Festival features folk music icons Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie and the Guthrie family performing FREE.

The annual holiday street fair is Monday, Nov. 26, with more than 20 FREE musical and dance performances, processional groups, a special area for kids’ entertainment and activities, ice sculpture demonstrations, food and more, including the annual tree lighting ceremony.

Here are the details:

Winter’s Eve 2018 is 5:30pm to 9pm, along Broadway, between 59th St./Columbus Circle and 70th Street.

The tree lighting is at Dante Park on Broadway and 63rd Street at 5:30 p.m.

Judy Collins will serve as the master of ceremonies  and fellow folk legend Arlo Guthrie on the main stage.

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With a career spanning five-decades, Judy Collins has released an astounding 50-album body of work and is best known for hits including “Both Sides Now,” “Send in the Clowns” and her moving rendition of “Amazing Grace.”  At 79, Collins is as creatively vigorous as ever, writing, touring worldwide, and nurturing fresh talent. Her most recent single, “Dreamers,” tells the story from the perspective of a DACA dreamer’s mother.Collins continues to light up the music world with her unwavering talent, much like Winter’s Eve revelry lights up Lincoln Square for this special night.

Arlo Guthrie and the Guthrie family will headline the Upper West Side’s only holiday tree lighting ceremony and perform folk favorites and a variety of holiday classics, joined by the internationally and highly acclaimed Young People’s Chorus of New York City, at the Dante Park Main Stage (Broadway between 63^rd and 64^th Streets).

After, the lively Frank London’s Klezmer Allstars and Latin boogaloo band Spanglish Fly will continue the celebration on the main stage.

Jazz aficionados can enjoy performances by trumpeter, composer, arranger, and producer Maurice “Mobetta” Brown at the American Folk Art Museum on Columbus Avenue between 65^th and 66^th Streets.

The outdoor stage at Richard Tucker Park, just across Columbus Avenue, features music from trumpeter Theo Croker and his band, who is hailed as one of the great promises of Black American Music (BAM), along with NY based honky-tonk, cosmopolitan country band The Nashville Attitude.

Attendees with happy feet can head to the TD Bank Dance Tent, on 62^nd Street just west of Columbus Avenue, where the exciting and versatile Café Wha? Band to inspire dancing all evening. Rock, reggae, funk, rhythm and blues, Latin, folk, and pop songs flow seamlessly together, embodying the rich and diverse spirit of New York.

For more jazz music, the Lucy Yeghiazryan Trio from Jazz at Lincoln Center will perform on the second floor of The Shops at Columbus Circle.

Head to the David Rubenstein Atrium to hear Colombia-rooted, NYC-based four-piece band Combo Chimbita blending funk, cumbia, and more into their music. Plus, up at the Apple Store, Upper West Side (Broadway and 67^th Street) a Steinway and Sons self-playing Spirio piano will be demoing for the evening with Apple-led programming.

In addition, multicultural dance troupes from Dance Parade will delight audiences on Frey Plaza (Broadway between 60^th and 61^st Streets). See choreography from groups including

• Steele Dance, a contemporary dance ensemble;
• Ajna Dance Company, an authentic Indian dance group;
• Red Silk Dancers, a Chinese classical and Folk dance group; and
• FFC Caporales Universitarios San Simon New York, a Bolivian dance fraternity.
  

Throughout the evening:

• Okamoto Studio ice sculpting, throughout the evening in front of Time Warner Center.
• Andrea Beeman, also known as the Enchantress of Bioluminosity, will roam the streets and share her elegant and ethereal dance style;
• Drawn Together will provide digital caricatures; the L Train Brass Band will parade up and down Broadway providing the fun sounds of NOLA to keep the music flowing through the streets;
•  street theater will be a central part of the festivities thanks to Processional Arts Workshop’s Giant Frost Puppets and Alice Farley’s Dance Theater.

Winter’s Eve will take place rain, snow, or shine.

Admission  is free, but event attendees are encouraged to bring and donate gently used or new coats of all sizes, especially children’s, to Dante Park at 63^rd Street and Broadway as part of the 30^th Annual New York Cares Coat Drive.

Winter’s Eve is sponsored by the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District (BID)