The 19th annual Welcome Back to Brooklyn festival promises
a day of performers and celebrities equal to their spectacular
backdrop – the waterfront.
The festival will be staged at Fulton Ferry Landing and Empire-Fulton
Ferry State Park, as well as along Water Street in DUMBO, from
11 am to 6 pm on Sunday, June 10.
The highlight of the program will be the crowning of musician
Arlo Guthrie, Brooklyn’s Homecoming King. Guthrie will also be
inducted into the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Celebrity Path along
with four other famous Brooklynites. The coronation-induction
ceremony will take place at 4 pm on the Park Stage, located in
Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.
The Coney Island-born Guthrie, 54, son of American folk icon
Woody Guthrie, found his career taking off with his performance
of the song, "Alice’s Restaurant Massacre" at the 1967
Newport Folk Festival. He formed Rising Son Records in 1986,
and is currently re-releasing his extensive Warner/Reprise catalog
and touring 10 months of the year. He is not expected to perform.
Guthrie will be inducted into the Celebrity Path along with comedian
Pat Cooper, famed appeals lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz ("Reversal
of Fortune: Inside the Von Bulow Case," Random House, 1986),
novelist Paule Marshall ("Brown Girl, Brownstones,"
Feminist Press, 1981) and Tony Award-winning singer Lillias White
("The Life").
The ceremony will be followed by a 5 pm performance featuring
Afro-pop diva Angelique Kidjo.
Two performance stages, one on the pier and one in the park,
both with the Brooklyn Bridge as a backdrop, will provide entertainment
throughout the day. At the Park Stage at noon, you won’t want
to miss Les Sans Culottes. The bawdy band of seven Williamsburg-based
artists performs faux French "roque and roll" and 1960s
ye-ye (go-go) music.
There will even be an Elizabethan insult-hurling contest by the
Kings County Shakespeare Company as part of the Culture Walk
on Water Street in DUMBO from 11 am to 6 pm.
Along Old Fulton Street and Water Street, Brooklyn eateries,
including Cranberry’s, Kino Resto-Bar, Pete’s Downtown and Uncle
Pho will sell selections from their menus.
At the Family Landing (Old Fulton Street) kids will be encouraged
to jump aboard the New York Aquarium’s Aquaravan, the Brooklyn
Public Library’s Bookmobile or the ’50s-style New York Transit
Museum bus to create hats from bus maps.
Welcome Back to Brooklyn takes place Sunday, rain or shine. Admission
is free. For a complete list of performers and performance times
visit www.brooklynX.org on the Web.
