Things To Do In Prospect Park This Month

Photo via Prospect Park

It’s summer time and that means there’s a lot going on in Prospect Park this month — whether you want free concerts, hiking, roller skating disco parties, or some al fresco food truck dining, there’s something for every member of the family to enjoy.

Here’s a list of the upcoming events in the park through the end of the month:

Wednesday, July 8

Green Market at Bartel-Pritchard Square
Every Wednesday, 8am-3pm
Nestled inside Prospect Park’s tree-shaded southwest corner, the offerings range from a selection of vegetables, fruits, baked goods, plants, and flowers, to fresh-caught fish and organic baked goods. For a full calendar of events and a list of sellers, visit GrowNYC.

Shape Up NYC: Glutes in Gear
Every Wednesday, 6-7pm
Focus on your lower half in this belly busting, booty shaping, two-part class. The first part builds endurance with heart-pumping cardio. Part two uses mat work to build your core and flatten and tighten your abs and glutes. Please bring your own workout mat.

Thursday, July 9

Thursday Volunteer Corps
Every Thursday, 10am-2pm
Get involved in your community! The Thursday Corps volunteers perform a multitude of different projects throughout Prospect Park as needed. The corps meets at a different location every week helping in a variety of landscape and horticultural projects. Register online.

Nature Exploration
Every Thursday, 2-4pm
Join the Prospect Park Alliance for nature education programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the first urban Audubon Center in the nation.

Free Fresh Air Yoga
Every Thursday, 7-8pm
Bend & Bloom and lululemon Brooklyn are teaming up to bring you a summer of free yoga in the park. Join in for an open-level outdoor class at the north end of the Long Meadow. Please bring your own mat.

Creatures of the Night
7-9pm
Explore Prospect Park after dark with expert naturalist Paul Keim. Share wine and cheese with Paul as he speaks about the ecological role that bats and nocturnal insects play in our environment, follwed by a walking tour to spot and identify the park’s various species of resident bats in flight. Reservations required, 21 and over.
$25 per person

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Punch Brothers
7:30-10:30pm
No band embodies the raging bluegrass revival better than Punch Brothers, a virtuosic five-piece fronted by mandolin monster Chris Thile, once the movement’s enfant terrible and now its champion. Celebrate Brooklyn! takes place at the Prospect Park Bandshell.

Friday, July 10

Shape Up NYC: Cardio Training
Every Friday, 12-1pm
An exercise class focusing on your core through a combination of strength, balance and toning exercises that raise the heart rate to burn calories and strengthen the cardio-respiratory system. Workout mat recommended.

Nature Exploration
Every Friday, 2-4pm
Join the Prospect Park Alliance for nature education programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the first urban Audubon Center in the nation.

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Bajofondo
7:30-10:30pm
The annual Celebrate Brooklyn! Latin Alternative Music Conference showcase features the blistering Argentine-Uruguayan collective Bajofondo, who mix rock and electronica with tango, murga, milonga, and candombe with lusty abandon. Celebrate Brooklyn! takes place at the Prospect Park Bandshell.

Lola Star’s Dreamland Roller Disco
7:30-10pm
Straight from the Coney Island boardwalk, Lola Star’s Dreamland Disco brings a vintage vibe and stellar entertainment to the LeFrak Center at Lakeside. This week, Duran Duran and New Wave.

Saturday, July 11

Coffee Bark
7-9am
Bring your pups to the Long Meadow for treats and great company. FIDO in Prospect Park offers free goodies for dogs and their owners as well as provides information pertaining to off-leash activities and issues.

Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza
Every Saturday, 8am-4pm
At what other market can you do all your food shopping, sample local wine and explore Brooklyn’s favorite park? Established in 1989, the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket is the flagship Brooklyn market.

Saturday Woodlands Corps
Every Saturday, 10am-2pm
The Saturday Woodland Corps is a team of volunteers committed to the continued restoration and revitalization of Propsect Park’s 250 acres of forest. Register online.

Nature Exploration
Every Saturday, 10am-1pm
Join the Prospect Park Alliance for nature education programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the first urban Audubon Center in the nation.

Shape-Up NYC: Cardio Sculpt
Every Saturday, 11am-12pm
Pump up your workout routine with this exercise class focusing on cardio and sculpting moves to help build endurance and strength.

Village Community Boathouse Rowing
Every Saturday, 12pm-4pm
Join the Alliance and the Village Community Boathouse for free public rowing on the Prospect Park Lake. Rowing is free and on a first-come, first served basis, boats launch from the ramp near Wellhouse Drive.

Pop Up Audubon
Every Saturday and Sunday, 12pm-6pm
Join the Alliance for this roving nature education program that explores a different area of the Park each month. In July, learn how to fish in the lake and go birdwatching.

Ezra Jack Keats Story Hour
Every Saturday, 2-3pm
Gather around Peter and Willy, the statue of two beloved Keats characters, for storytelling adventures brought to life by Tammy Hall, at various locations.

Fun on the Farm
Every Saturday, 2pm-5pm
Join the Prospect Park Alliance at Lefferts Historic House to help take care of the potato plot, herb gardens, and berry patches by pulling weeds and helping to water. Bring a hat and a bottle of water and we will provide the tools and gloves. $3 suggested donation.

Celebrate Brooklyn!: The new Pornographers
7:30-10:30pm
The New Pornographers —A.C. Newman, John Collins, Blaine Thurier, Dan Bejar, Kathryn Calder, and Todd Fancey— are a true supergroup, “virtually peerless in the world of power-pop and indie-rock,” (NPR) and last year’s Brill Bruisers found them in top form. With the beguiling alt-folk iconoclasts Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.

Sunday, July 12

Family Bird Watching
10-11am
Looking for a fun way to spend time with your family outdoors? Join the Prospect Park Alliance for its monthly family bird watching tours, beginning at the Audubon Center. After learning how to use binoculars, join our naturalists to identify some of the 250 species of birds that call Prospect Park home. Please note this tour leaves promptly at 10 am.

Nature Exploration
Every Sunday, 10am-1pm
Join the Prospect Park Alliance for nature education programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the first urban Audubon Center in the nation.

Weekend Volunteer Corps
Every Sunday, 10am-1pm
Get involved in your community! Help spruce up gardens; paint fences & benches; weed; spread mulch; clean and maintain pathways. We can accommodate any group ranging from just a few people to up to 40 volunteers.Advance registration required.

Food Truck Rally
Every Sunday, 11am-5pm
The Alliance and Dispatch NY present a sampling of cuisines from around the world from New York’s best food trucks.Trucks in attendance will include DUB Pies, Kelvin Natural Slush Co, Carpe Donut NYC, Toum, Kimchi Taco Truck, Neapolitan Express, Coolhaus, The Taïm Mobile, Snowday, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Brooklyn Organic Coffee & Tea Truck, Papaya King, Nuchas II, Milk Truck, Phil’s Steaks, Ponti Roissi, Gorilla Cheese NYC, Andy’s Italian Ices, and Carl’s Steaks.

Bones of an Old Dutch Farmhouse Tour
12-1pm
Examine the white oak timbers (the bones) of Lefferts Historic House and the many layers that were added, subtracted and changed over the past 230 years. Climb the staircase for a view of the attic’s smokehouse and descend into the cellar for a look at the foundation. For adults and teenagers. Only 10 people per tour. Reservations required: call (718)789-2822 ex. 304. $10 suggested donation.

Thursday, July 16

Creatures of the Night: Family Edition
7-9pm
Explore Prospect Park after dark with expert Naturalist Paul Keim. Share snacks and beverages as he speaks about the ecological rol that bats and notcturnal insects play in our environment, followed by a walking tour to spot and identify the Park’s various species of resident bats in flight. Families with children 8 and over invited to attend. Register online. $10 per person or $30 for a family of four.

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Vieux Farka Touré
7:30-10:30pm
The heir apparent to the African guitar throne, Vieux Farka Touré—son of the Malian six-string magician Ali Farka Touré—plays “…original guitar music of such fluidity, technique, rhythmic invention, and passion, that it is virtually unequaled.” (AllMusic)

Friday, July 17

Celebrate Brooklyn!: The Son of the Sheik & Ghost Train Orchestra
7:30-10:30pm
Alloy Orchestra’s latest score enlivens Rudolf Valentino’s final outing: The Son of the Sheik (1926), a vivid tale of passion, betrayal, and redemption, leaves no doubt that Valentino (who died suddenly on the eve of its release) is the silver screen’s greatest lover, and that Alloy is still “the best in the world at accompanying silent films.”

Saturday, July 18

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Rihannon Giddens
7:30-10:30pm
With her T-Bone Burnett-produced solo debut Tomorrow Is My Turn, Rihannon Giddens—already among the brightest stars of Americana as the leader of the Carolina Chocolate Drops—is so hot she’s in danger of melting the Bandshell stage. “She can summon the power of a field holler, Celtic quavers, girlish innocence, bluesy sensuality, gospel exaltation or the pain of slavery… For all her technical control, her voice is a perpetually soulful marvel.”

Tuesday, July 21

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Interpol
7-10pm
Interpol performs at the Bandshell as part of Celebrate Brooklyn!, presented by BRIC in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance. This is a ticketed event which helps support free Celebrate Brooklyn! programming. Tickets and up-to-date information are available on theBRIC website. New York’s own Interpol is returning to their homeland to rock the Bandshell. $35.

Wednesday, July 22

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Modest Mouse
7-10pm
Modest Mouse performs at the Bandshell as part of Celebrate Brooklyn!, presented by BRIC in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance. This is a ticketed event which helps support free Celebrate Brooklyn! programming. Tickets and up-to-date information are available on theBRIC website. Celebrating their long-awaited album Strangers To Ourselves, Celebrate Brooklyn! ’02 alums Modest Mouse will once again flood the Bandshell with their distinctive indie rock. $42.50 in advance, $45 day of show.

A Summer Movie Under the Stars
7-11pm
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, presents free summer movie screenings at Long Meadow North. This week, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Friday, July 24

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Jason Isbell
7:30-10:30pm
The Alabama native Jason Isbell has emerged as the great hope of country music, “a composer of splendidly crafted songs” who “performs with an intensity that connects the listener to the deep and genuine emotions that inspire his work.”

Saturday, July 25

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Sylvan Esso
7:30-10:30pm
Obliterating dubstep stutters and crisp electropop pulses. Hazy electrostatic breezes and epinephrine dancefloor turnarounds. Sylvan Esso—the singer Amelia Meath of Mountain Man and the producer (and Megafaun bassist) Nick Sanborn—create “endlessly elastic and three-dimensional” (NPR) songs that conjure up dreamlike conflations of sensuality and sexual depravity, homesickness and wanderlust, nostalgia and immediacy.

Wednesday, July 29

A Summer Movie Under the Stars
7-11pm
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, presents free summer movie screenings. This week, Where The Wild Things Are.

Thursday, July 30

Family Fishing Evening
6-8pm
The Prospect Park Alliance welcomes family to an introductory catch-and-release fishing class. Our experienced naturalists will teach participants how to tie a fishing knot, attach bait, and cast a line to try and hook a fish. Families and children ages 8 and older are welcome to participate. All equipment and light snacks will be provided. Register online. $5 per person.

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Clifford Ross & The Orchestra of St. Luke’s
7:30-10:30pm
In this mesmerizing world premiere, the masterful NYC-based Orchestra of St. Luke’s provides accompaniment to a massive, site specific, multi-screen installation by the artist Clifford Ross, whose work evokes “profound vitality and pleasure.”

Friday, July 31

Celebrate Brooklyn!: Big K.R.I.T.
7:30-10:30pm
Big K.R.I.T., whose space-themed 2014 sophomore effort Cadillactica (Def Jam) “shines like a supernova,” is “one of the most gifted rappers living on this wretched ball of blue called Earth.”