A trio of free events will keep Lower Manhattan residents slimmed, slaked, sated, and even seated this weekend. Tonight, the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy will host (in partnership with the Consulate General of Sweden), the annual Swedish Midsummer Festival in Wagner Park and on the Pier A Plaza, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.
Guests are invited to picnic on the lawn and enjoy traditional music by Paul Dahlin, fiddlers from the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, folk dances with Barnklubben Elsa Rix, and pole dancing led by Scandinavian folklorist and singer Ross Sutter. Admission is free, and food stands will selling delicacies from some of New York’s finest Swedish restaurants, while Carlsberg beer will be sold at Pier A Plaza. (Please note that consumption of alcohol is permitted on the Pier A Plaza, but not in Wagner Park.) For more information about the Swedish Midsummer Festival, please browse: bpcparks.org/event/swedish-midsummer-dance/
Tomorrow (Saturday, June 25), the Community Center at Stuyvesant High School (245 Chambers Street, near North End Avenue) will host Battery Park City Community Day from 1:00 to 7:00 pm.
Billed as “a celebration of Battery Park City,” the event will include complimentary classes in dance fitness (1:30 and 2:00 pm), tai chi (2:00 and 3:00 pm), yoga (2:30 and 3:30 pm), boxing (2:30 pm and 4:00 pm), cardio swim (2:30 and 3:30 pm), and core fitness (3:30 and 4:30 pm). There will also outdoor lawn games, while guests inside enjoy free use of the basketball courts, weight room, and half-sized Olympic pool. (Anybody wishing to use the pool is asked bring their own towel and lock.) And everybody will be offered on-the-house pizza and refreshments.
“Battery Park City is an incredibly vibrant community packed with much to enjoy for people of all ages, including our world class parks, programs and cultural institutions,” said Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) president Shari Hyman. “There’s no better place to kick off the official start of summer than at our Community Day — an event we hope becomes an annual neighborhood tradition. We invite you to join us and come have a day on BPCA!”
While use of the Community Center is free during Saturday’s festivities, guests who are impressed by the facilities may wish to note that they are very nearly free the other 364 days of the year. The BPCA (which operates the Community Center at Stuyvesant High School as a public service) recently slashed across all categories of membership, with the result that an annual membership now costs less than the monthly fees at some comparable fitness centers. Adult all-access membership for one year has been been discounted from $525 to $199. Additionally, a further discount is being offered to Battery Park City residents, who will pay $179. Annual membership for seniors, youth, and military personnel is discounted to $79. Previously, seniors paid $150, while young members paid $100. And purchase of either an annual membership or a day pass also entitles the holder to participate in (at no additional cost) many group classes offered by the Community Center, including group swim lessons for children and adults, tennis clinics, yoga, badminton, total body boxing, and the Battery Park City Running Club.
For more information about Battery Park City Community Day, please browse: bpcparks.org/event/battery-park-city-community-day. For more information about the Community Center at Stuyvesant High School, please browse: bpcparks.org/whats-here/community-center
And the Battery Conservancy will host the Battery Fair tomorrow and Sunday (June 25 and 26, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm) in Historic Battery Park, located immediately south of Pier A.
The Fair will celebrate the long-awaited opening of the Battery Oval: 87,000 square feet of Kentucky bluegrass, surrounded by 38 trees. (The sod on the magnificent lawn was laid in 2015, but needed a year to take root.) The Oval will also be equipped with 300 new chairs, shaped like flowers.
This Fair will welcome a two-day marketplace that will feature more than 90 artisinal vendors, selling organic products (such as fish, flowers, fruits and vegetables, grain, herbs, and meat), many of them locally sourced, and all of them small-batch purveyors who are defining alternative, sustainable systems of natural production without compromising taste and beauty. The vision behind the Fair is to showcase innovations in agriculture, horticulture, food, and craft; to emphasize the connections between food production and plant production; and to support and connect small batch entrepreneurs in the Northeast region. For more information, please browse: www.thebattery.org/things-to-do/thebatteryfair