Rain cut the attendance numbers from last year's event in half this year, but 150,000 people still headed to the Tribeca Film Festival's largest event, the Tribeca Family Festival. Through a nonstop drizzle, kids and parents walked down Greenwich Street between Hubert and Chambers Streets, to experience myriad activities and entertainment. Tribeca Film Festival cofounder Jane Rosenthal hired Empire Entertainment to produce the event for the third year.
American Express, the event's major sponsor, made its presence known through everything from the branded rain slickers on staffers and volunteers to its "Twinkle Twinkle Changing Station" and break rooms for families in need of pit stops, and its "House of Stars" tribute to moviemaking, where kids could sit in a director's chair, design costumes, and have headshots taken (they were just Polaroids, really).
Alongside several activity tents for kids, a variety of food, clothing, and other merchandising booths set up on Greenwich Street. Concert stages featured musical acts and kids' dance troupes—a hip-hop group of preteens called City Kids was followed by a Russian folk-dancing and ballet troupe.
Event cosponsor GMC created a kid-pleasing, parent-tempting display. Kids could play with a remote control racetrack for model GMC racers while their parents checked out model cars on display.
Among other sponsors, Scholastic Books operated a huge tent filled with children's books, plenty of movie tie-ins, and storytelling (a separate celebrity storytelling tent provided more literary entertainment). American Express gave out free T-shirts silk-screened with the line "Talk to My Agent."
Sand sculptor G. Lynas crouched above a sandbox as children watched him sculpt a hippo. Actors dressed like cops, robbers, and gangster mols delighted strolling kids and parents with impromptu acting lessons. Scratch DJ Academy gave its own lessons in the art of DJing. Meanwhile, Chess-in-the-Schools' giant chessboard enticed the chess fanatics into casual chess tournaments to promote chess playing in public schools.
—Jim Knable
American Express, the event's major sponsor, made its presence known through everything from the branded rain slickers on staffers and volunteers to its "Twinkle Twinkle Changing Station" and break rooms for families in need of pit stops, and its "House of Stars" tribute to moviemaking, where kids could sit in a director's chair, design costumes, and have headshots taken (they were just Polaroids, really).
Alongside several activity tents for kids, a variety of food, clothing, and other merchandising booths set up on Greenwich Street. Concert stages featured musical acts and kids' dance troupes—a hip-hop group of preteens called City Kids was followed by a Russian folk-dancing and ballet troupe.
Event cosponsor GMC created a kid-pleasing, parent-tempting display. Kids could play with a remote control racetrack for model GMC racers while their parents checked out model cars on display.
Among other sponsors, Scholastic Books operated a huge tent filled with children's books, plenty of movie tie-ins, and storytelling (a separate celebrity storytelling tent provided more literary entertainment). American Express gave out free T-shirts silk-screened with the line "Talk to My Agent."
Sand sculptor G. Lynas crouched above a sandbox as children watched him sculpt a hippo. Actors dressed like cops, robbers, and gangster mols delighted strolling kids and parents with impromptu acting lessons. Scratch DJ Academy gave its own lessons in the art of DJing. Meanwhile, Chess-in-the-Schools' giant chessboard enticed the chess fanatics into casual chess tournaments to promote chess playing in public schools.
—Jim Knable
At the Tribeca Film Festival's Family Festival on Greenwich Street, storytelling tents were decorated with pink carpet and bright sashes of fabric across the tent ceiling.
Sand sculptor G. Lynas crouched above a sandbox as children watched him sculpt a hippo.
Actors dressed like cops, robbers, and gangster mols entertained strolling kids and parents with impromptu acting lessons.
Event cosponsor GMC created a kid-pleasing, parent-tempting display. Kids could play with a remote control racetrack for model GMC racers while their parents checked out model cars on display.
