Central Park, Aug 17–23: two clean hot mornings, Chance and Kidjo at Rumsey, and a sold-out 10K that holds the loop till noon Saturday

Coloring Book

        NYRR has claimed the whole week for its third Member Week, and it ends Saturday with a sold-out members-only 10K that holds both drives until noon. Around it: two of SummerStage’s biggest nights of the season, the emptiest Thursday in a month, and a Saturday with something on nearly every lawn.

Weather this week

Monday is wet with thunderstorms, then Tuesday and Wednesday go clear and hot — 85° and 87°, the week’s peak — before storms return Thursday and the weekend turns showery in the low 80s. Front-load anything demanding onto Tuesday and Wednesday at dawn, and let Thursday’s empty calendar and unsettled sky be the rest day.

Mon Aug 17 — wet, and just the Bandshell

Thunderstorms at 83°. Bill Popp and the Tapes plays Bandshell Plaza 5–7 PM. Lawn work closes the East 106th Street lawn all day and the Wild West Playground lawn to 2 PM. Nothing on the drives.

Tue Aug 18 — the best morning, then Chance the Rapper

Clear and 85°. No permits on the drives — this and Wednesday are the week’s two clean loop mornings, so go early.

In the evening, Chance the Rapper brings the Coloring Book 10-year anniversary tour to Rumsey Playfield at 7 PM with La Reezy. The Fifth Avenue side around 72nd gets busy from late afternoon.

Bowling Green closes all day, its third closure in two weeks — that lawn is on a restoration program now, not a rotation.

Wed Aug 19 — hottest day, pop-punk at Rumsey

87° and sunny, the week’s peak. Drives are clear again. Simple Plan, 3OH!3 and Bowling for Soup play Rumsey at 6 PM — a warm night to be standing on that field.

Thu Aug 20 — nothing scheduled anywhere

No one-off permits in the entire park. Storms and 81°. If the rain breaks, this is as empty as Central Park gets.

Fri Aug 21 — pollinators, a festival, a picnic

  11 AM — Summer Pollinator Walk from Boys’ Gate, through the park’s secret butterfly garden
  3–8 PM — Rubyboo Entertainment Music Festival at Bandshell Plaza
  5:30–8 PM — the Public Theater’s picnic at the Delacorte, on the Great Lawn’s southwest edge

Sat Aug 22, 7:30 AM–12 PM — Grete’s Great Gallop holds the loop

The loop is unusable all morning. The permit covers West Drive, East Drive, the Center Loop, the 72nd Street Cross Drive and Bandshell Plaza from 7:30 AM to noon — the hours past the finish are the post-race festival, so the road doesn’t come back at 10. Run or ride before 7 AM or after noon, or take the Bridle Path or the Reservoir.

It’s members-only, sold out, and the standby list is full — a spectating morning unless you already hold a bib. The course is Grete Waitz’s old Mini 10K loop, where she won five titles and set world records in 1979 and 1980.

Then the rest of the day opens up:

  9 AM–3 PM — Model Yacht Racing at Kerbs Boathouse
  9 AM–5 PM — Chess Lecture Simul Series at the Chess and Checkers House
  10 AM–1 PM — Storytelling at the Hans Christian Andersen statue
  11 AM — Ramble Woodland Walk and the Conservatory Garden Tour
  12–6 PM — That Guitar Man From Central Park at Hernshead
  2–7 PM — Skate Circle at Dead Road
  5–8 PM — Carlos Konig Salsa at the Bandshell; 6–9 PM — Tango at the Shakespeare Statue
  6–7:30 PM — Breathwork on the Great Lawn, if you want the quiet end of a loud day

East Meadow is closed all day for restoration, and again Sunday.

Sun Aug 23 — the loop returns, Kidjo closes the week

Drives are clear. Angélique Kidjo headlines Rumsey at 7 PM with Cimafunk and DJ Freshy K, preceded at 4:30 by the free Voices of Power panel on African women in media and diplomacy (RSVP). Elsewhere: Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza 11 AM–8 PM, the Ray Delgado Project at the Dana Discovery Center at 2 PM, the Skate Circle again, and the Pollinator Walk repeating at 11 AM.

Quick recap

  Sat 7:30 AM–12 PM: the loop is closed. Grete’s Gallop plus its Bandshell festival — before 7, after noon, or Bridle Path and Reservoir.
  Tue and Wed are the clean loop mornings — clear, hot, nothing permitted on the drives.
  Chance the Rapper Tue 7 PM; Angélique Kidjo Sun 7 PM, both at Rumsey.
  Saturday afternoon has everything — model yachts, chess, storytelling, two Conservancy tours, salsa, tango, breathwork.
  Thursday is empty — no permits anywhere in the park.

Have a good week out there,
Central Park Guide