Art, media, and events collaborative JellyNYC developed a devoted hipster following for its free summer concerts at the vacant McCarren Park Pool in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in 2006. But when the venue was placed on the city’s list for refurbishment in 2008, planners had to move the 2009 series to another park. And though the state-owned venue’s different set of rules and government oversight didn’t make it easy on producers, the capacity crowds reaffirmed JellyNYC’s sense of purpose.
“You could say we were victims of our own success,” says Sarah Hooper, co-owner of JellyNYC. “The community organizations had been petitioning to have [McCarren Park] turned back into a pool, but all of the attention the parties brought to it was enough for the city to allocate $50 million to do it.”
The city-run pool was something of a free-for-all compared with the state park, though the young hipster demographic and diverse roster of indie musicians such as the Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear remained true to the spirit of years past.
Gone were the Slip ’n Slides and loose restrictions on alcohol distribution, but these seemed like small concessions to the producers, who wanted to continue the shows while growing the audience. And they did just that, filling the park, which is zoned for 8,000—2,000 more than the shows drew before.
Transitioning the eight-week series—still called “Pool Parties”—seemed worth the hassle to Hooper and JellyNYC founder Alexander Kane, who rely heavily on sponsors and put on the Sunday afternoon shows in hopes of just breaking even. “Our sponsors bankrolled this,” Kane says. “So we wanted our patrons to recognize them through natural integrations and fun activities.”
Sponsors such as Converse, Red Bull, and Smirnoff know what they’re doing. The parties’ throngs of influencers aren’t limited to the borough’s hipster population. Press coverage has brought larger and more diverse crowds, and this summer’s final show counted Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and U.S. senator Chuck Schumer among its attendees.