The Castle Festival in New York: Welcoming the World for 150 Years

07/22/2005 07:56AM

New York City (New York), USA - Battery Conservancy & World Music Institute hosts a free music festival to mark the 150th Anniversary of the opening of Castle Garden immigrant depot. The event will take place on Sunday, July 31st to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Castle Garden immigration center. There will be five groups from the metropolitan area performing hot salsa, Middle Eastern jazz fusion, Irish songs, Albanian music, and West African drumming, dancing, and stilt walking.

Castle Clinton National Monument, The Battery
Sunday, July 31
4:30PM -10PM
FREE. Rain or Shine. Bring a picnic.

Five acclaimed groups representing New York's unique cultural diversity will perform in this special free concert:

4:30: Opening Festivities in the Battery with the Kotchegna Dance Company

6-10 PM: Castle Concert with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra (Grammy-winning Latin salsa band), Simon Shaheen's Qantara (Arab-jazz fusion led by one of the world's greatest ud players), Susan McKeown (Irish immigration songs with “one of the most influential and powerful voices in Irish music” The Irish Voice), and Merita Halili & the Raif Hyseni Orchestra (Music of Albania).

Tickets for the concert are available at 5pm day of show. Limit two per person.
Tickets are for limited Castle seating. Surrounding park seating is unlimited.

Directions: The Battery is accessible from State Street and Battery Place. It is adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
By Subway: 4/5 to Bowling Green, R/W to Whitehall Street, 1 to South Ferry
By Bus: M1, M6, M15 to South Ferry

Info: (212) 344-3491 ext 21 or www.thebattery.org.

Monday, August 1 marks the launch of www.castlegarden.org which will make the names and records of those who passed through Castle Garden freely accessible to the public.

[Photos: Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Simon Shaheen].

World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20050719110608610