It’s a graveyard smash!
Green-Wood Cemetery will open its gates on July 16 for hundreds of visitors to enjoy its annual extravaganza of 1800s-inspired circus performances. “A Night at Niblo’s Garden,” now in its fourth year, is inspired by one of the boneyard’s permanent residents: 19th-century theater impresario William Niblo, who would host parties in front of the mausoleum he commissioned for his dead wife, said one of the night’s organizers.
“It’s a really fantastic summer evening, inspired by one of the people who is buried at Green-Wood,” said Lisa Alpert. “It’s sort of unusual, but he would go visit, and he would also invite friends and family to picnic on the green area outside his mausoleum. We have all sorts of unusual acts for an evening of performances and 19th-century showmanship.”
Niblo had the mausoleum built right next to a pond, making it the perfect spot for people to lay out a blanket and snack on food from the 1800s, said Alpert.
“Hundreds of people come, it’s a very big event,” she said. “Some bring 19th-century picnics — people go online and see what things people were eating so they can channel the whole vintage experience. They put out their blankets all around the pond, and several acts take place in the water.”
The historical evening’s entertainment is provided by Brooklyn’s Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, which will transport its fire-breathing experts, balloonists, and jugglers from the circus ring to Niblo’s graveside, along with some other Victorian entertainments, said the group’s founder.
“I will be riding a pennyfarthing bike — big wheel in the front, little in the back,” said Keith Nelson. “I will be eating fire and spitting fire, and may be doing some juggling.”
The circus group will also invite visitors to play 19th-century games such as Graces, which involves two people tossing a ring back and forth using hand sticks, and Shuttlecock, which is similar to badminton. All of the games, performances, and fire breathing take place at the foot of the pond, creating a picturesque evening, said Nelson.
“It creates this beautiful picture with fire and candles and light in this graveyard and people in pageantry,” he said.
People do not spend time in cemeteries the way they used to — so this is a rare opportunity to experience the entertainments of old New York City with a beautiful backdrop, said Nelson.
“Green-Wood is this really kind of special place, back to an era when graveyards were open space for people to be in,” he said. “To be able to be somewhere and be surrounded by rolling hills and a deep history of the city — just to be in the middle of nature in the middle of Brooklyn, for me, it’s extremely special.”
“A Night at Niblo’s Garden” at Green-Wood Cemetery [500 25th St. at Fifth Avenue in Greenwood Heights, (718) 210–3080, www.green
