Just recently I was headed over to one of the free “River To River” music festival shows because it featured Progressive Rock luminaries Renaissance and Steve Hackett (who played with a little band they call Genesis).  These outdoor shows can be good or bad depending on the weather for the day, and the case of this performance while a little bit on the hot side was a day that could be easily dealt with.

Rockefeller Park is located down in Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan, and the show I was attending was best accessed via a straight wander down Chambers Street.  You pretty much walk down the street until you cannot go any further.  If you keep going you will end up in the Hudson River, and no one wants that.  Pictured above is a pedestrian bridge that let’s the tourists, and residents and their children get safe passage across the very busy West Side Highway beginnings.  There is a cross-walk as well, but I really wanted to go across via the bridge so I did.

I neglected to take a photo of the bridge from the inside to show the span, but its really nothing more than an outdoor hallway when it comes down to it.  It looks over the West Side Highway, and it is open so is likely brutal cold on those Winter days.  Luckily I was going to the park for a summer celebration.  After I passed a number or surely expensive high rise apartments, the destination was visible.

One needs to wander down either the stairs or a nearby ramp to get inside the park, and as soon as I hit the landing below, I was finding another interesting discovery in the fountain and tables area.  I didn’t know about them before, but there was another artistic display by sculptor Tom Otterness.  This particular one was called “The Real World” and while I shot photos of as many of the statues that I could, I am not posting them here and instead giving them their own blog piece.  Stay tuned for that.

Wandering around the park, there were some youths at play and some were doing Soccer while others Football (the American kind I mean) and there was even a couple of Frisbees buzzing overhead from time to time.  I snapped a couple of shots to showcase the beauty of the grounds.

Just passed where these guys were playing appeared to be a pier, but I didn’t wander down there to see what it looked like.  Perhaps another time depending on the schedule of arriving bands to the city.  If there is free time I know that I will bring more visuals to your attention.

I know that it sounded corny to use a line from the classic by Rush, but there is clearly no unrest in the forest here as far as I could see.  As a matter of fact there was a bunch of people catching some rays and a snooze.  That sure seemed like a good idea, but I had photos to take and some lunch to get in me so it would not be an option on the day’s agenda for me.

The structure above is another entrance and an area with steps and some shade where people can convene to plot out their next move in life.  It’s not huge, nor looks like anything other than “quaint”, but when there is a show happening, the space expands and morphs into something entirely different and to me, much much cooler.  Behold!

You have to admit that it looks impressive and just makes you want to sit down and enjoy a rocking show.  The event I attended that night was certainly one to remember even if it was a little bit shorter than I would have preferred.  The whole story about that concert and all of the photos of the performers can be found on this LINK.  I hope you like it.

I was quite impressed with just how pleasant Jersey City looked from across the water after the show had ended.  I actually used to work in one of the buildings directly opposite this particular spot.  I didn’t bother to wave since it was unlikely that anyone in that office is even left anymore.  Such is how it goes in corporate servitude.

A little cloudy in terms of the clarity for this one, but that happens sometimes 🙂