Damrosch Park, Cultural venue in Lincoln Center, Manhattan, US
Damrosch Park is an open plaza on the southwest side of the Lincoln Center complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It sits between the Metropolitan Opera House and the north end of the Juilliard School building, forming a paved outdoor space anchored by the Guggenheim Bandshell on its western edge.
The plaza opened in 1969 as part of the Lincoln Center development and was named after Frank and Walter Damrosch, two conductors who shaped New York's music scene in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Guggenheim Bandshell was donated to the city that same year and has been the focal point of the space ever since.
The Guggenheim Bandshell, an open-air stage at the western edge of the plaza, hosts free summer concerts and dance performances. Audiences sit on temporary chairs or on the ground, giving the space a relaxed and open feel.
The plaza is accessible from Amsterdam Avenue and West 62nd Street, and can also be reached by walking through the Lincoln Center complex from its main plaza. On event days, the area around the bandshell fills quickly, so arriving early gives a better choice of spots.
The plaza was the starting point of the first AIDS Walk New York in 1986, a fundraising walk that later grew into the largest single-day event of its kind in the world. There is no visible marker on the site today, so most visitors pass through without knowing what began here.
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