A Free Plaza Concert Runs Through the Americas

The series moves across the hemisphere week to week rather than settling into one genre, which is the point of the programming. Musicians perform on a small stage at plaza level with the audience in folding chairs a few feet away. Admission is free and nothing is ticketed. The crowd builds by word of mouth through the early evening, outdoors in Downtown Brooklyn, between the towers and the trees.

You walk onto the plaza, take a chair or claim a step, and the set starts without much ceremony. People arrive mid-song and nobody minds. The front rows fill first, though the acoustics carry to the back of the square. By the second act the chairs give out and the standing edge becomes the better place to be, and that is where people dance. Food vendors work the perimeter through the evening.

The concert runs on the evening of Wednesday, September 23 at 300 Ashland Place, minutes from the Atlantic Avenue and Nevins Street stations. Nothing to book. Bring a layer for when the sun drops behind the towers, which happens faster than the temperature suggests. It fits people who want live music without a ticket, a door time or a two-drink minimum, rather than a seated indoor concert.