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UWS Summer Concert Series Packed, But Not a Single Person Paid

By Leslie Albrecht | August 15, 2011 6:48am | Updated on August 16, 2011 9:51am

UPPER WEST SIDE — Hundreds of Upper West Siders have grooved at this year's Summer on the Hudson's free Sunday concert series — but not a single person has been willing to pay for it.

An online fundraising campaign for the budget-crunched Summer on the Hudson's Amplified Sundays concerts has fallen flat, raising an astonishing zero dollars for the musical program at Pier I, near West 70th Street.

The concerts are part of a series of free events which includes outdoor movies, pilates and yoga classes, dancing and children's programming. Most of the events take place in Riverside Park South, though this year the series expanded to sites in the northern part of Riverside Park.

In past years, corporate sponsors have helped foot the bill for the Amplified Sunday concerts, but that money has dried up, said Riverside Park Director of Public Programming Zhen Heinemann.

So she turned to audience members, asking them to donate through the online fundraising tool Kickstarter. Heinemann's goal was to raise $18,000, enough to keep the concerts going and add a children's movie series to the Summer on the Hudson line-up.

Kickstarter allows nonprofits to solicit donations for specific projects. 

Heinemann started the fundraising drive two months ago. She's announced it at every Summer on the Hudson event this year, mentioned it on Twitter, Facebook and in email blasts and promoted it with stickers on Summer on the Hudson brochures.

She also shows a short video about the campaign before Summer on the Hudson's free movies.

But nobody has offered a single cent, she said.

"I thought for sure that if I (promoted) it everywhere, people would give $20," said Heinemann.

About 500 to 700 people attend each Amplified Sunday concert, where jazz, R&B and world music bands jam against a sunset backdrop. The entire series reaches roughly 30,000 audience members a year, Heinemann said.

Many of the people who enjoy the free movies, music and dancing may mistakenly think their taxes pay for the programming, which isn't the case, Heinemann said. The $87,000 annual budget for Summer on the Hudson's events in Riverside Park South is funded by the developers of Riverside South, the nearby residential development.

Summer on the Hudson is now in its 10th year. For a few years its budget was beefed up by other corporate sponsors, which paid for the Amplified Sundays concerts. But those sponsorships ended and efforts to find new ones haven't worked, which is why Heinemann turned to audience members to raise funds.

She figures some people may by confused by the new-fangled Kickstarter. If so, they can donate directly to the Riverside Park Fund, the park's private conservancy, Heinemann said.

"I'm super grateful if people do donate," Heinemann said. "I don't want to be like a mean parent and say, 'You’ve been enjoying this for too long without paying for this.'

"I’m just trying to say, this is my dilemma — if we don’t get some money we’re going to lose the programming. If people don’t mind not having those concerts, then I guess they don’t mind. But people seem to like the concerts."