55th year of Washington Square Music Festival - Concert Tuesday night July 8th, 8 p.m.

Michael Packer @ Washington Square

The Washington Square Music Festival was founded in 1953 by violinist Alexander Schneider of the famed Budapest String Quartet (and a Greenwich Village resident) and the Washington Square Association, which still sponsors the event. It is the only outdoor classical concert series in New York City sponsored by a local community-oriented organization. That organization has existed since 1906.

Peggy Friedman, executive director of the Washington Square Music Festival, sent in this photo of the Michael Packer Band from the opening concert which took place on June 21st. She writes, “Alas, this is the last year we will perform on this historic stage. It will be torn down in the next step in the renovation.”

The remaining concerts are all Tuesday evenings at 8 p.m. : July 8, 15, 22 and 29, all chamber orchestra ensembles except for July 29th which features the Charles Mingus Orchestra.

All concerts are Free and take place in the SouthEast quadrant of Washington Square Park, near the Garibaldi statue.

Seating is first-come, first-served.

In the event of rain, the concert moves to: Frederick Loewe Theatre (NYU), 35 West 4th Street.

Information: # 212.252.3621.

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Photo: Cory Weaver

Film Premiere: “Washington Square SQUARED” Sunday, June 1st in Manhattan

“Washington Square SQUARED” is a one hour documentary which focuses on the redesign of Washington Square Park and what’s taken place over the last four years: how the Bloomberg Administration pushed through its agenda to get this famous park in ‘line’ - literally.

The film gets its premiere screening on Sunday, June 1st at the Bowery Poetry Club. In the meantime, you can get a preview of director Matt Davis’s work by watching this 5 minute video clip with up & coming performer, Farbeon, which places the Washington Square Park issue in the midst of an engaging music video. (And there’s some extraordinary footage of NYC Parks Department designer George Vellonakis in action.)

“Washington Square SQUARED” Screening / Film Premiere

It begins with the fountain, that famous theatre-in-the-round, home to political protest, art and musical freewheeling. The new design calls for this structure to “align” with the historic Arch (after over a century unaligned), more “picture perfect” for tourists traveling down Fifth Avenue, and reduction of the voluminous public space that surrounds it transformed into quaint areas with landscaped lawns.

The film shows the government’s bait-and-switch games with the outraged community, whose members watch the City attempt to transform the Washington Square Park that they know and love into one that is pretty and pacified and far from its artistic, bohemian roots.

If you’ve been wondering how it got to this - with much of Washington Square Park behind gates and bulldozed - “Washington Square SQUARED” will bring into sharp focus what’s happened thus far and what’s in store.

This is the premiere screening of this documentary. Directed by Matt Davis.

With Musical Guests: The Fools, A Brief View of The Hudson, Jeff Dickinson

This SUNDAY, JUNE 1st, 7 p.m.

BOWERY POETRY CLUB

308 Bowery between Houston & Bleecker

F train to 2nd Avenue; 6 train to Bleecker

Four Dollars

Film site: square-movie.com

Music Jam Fridays at the Park

Do you have a Washington Square Park-related story? I’d like to intersperse the chronicles of the City descending on Washington Square Park with their redesign plans with historical notes and personal stories that might be of interest. Please send to me at cathryn.be at gmail.com.