If you’re planning to head to any of the Seaport Music Fesival shows, here’s extra incentive to make the short trip from the Lower East Side to the Seaport: the Alliance for Downtown New York is launching a “Game On!” festival that will bring a slew of programming to the East River waterfront. As part of the fest, which runs from June 26 through Labor Day, they’re bringing in several tons of sand and creating a beach where you can sit in lounge chairs and play shuffleboard (which should spare you the trek to Smorgasburg’s new shuffleboard courts at Jones Beach).
The oasis at Water Street and Whitehall Plaza (not far from where Water Taxi Beach and then Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club were before Pier 17 closed for redevelopment) is just the start of it: from Monday through Friday, noon until 7 p.m., there’ll be two separate beer gardens (one with corn hole at Coenties Slip Park and Plaza, the other with foosball at the Andaz, at 75 Wall Street); a three-hole mini-golf range at the Elevated Acre at 55 Water; two huge Connect Four games at Gouverneur Lane Plaza; and nok-hockey and Battleship at Old Slip Park, where (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays) there’ll also be a rotating array of food trucks like Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Del’s Frozen Lemonade, Korilla BBQ, Asia Dog, Cool Haus, Kimchi Taco Truck and Wafels and Dinges.
If you haven’t been down to East River Esplanade lately (say, to catch the ferry to Rockaway, or to see a free outdoor flick), we’ll let you in on a secret: you can tap into free WiFi at the outdoor desks, just above Wall Street, that look out onto the river. Go there the next time your cubicle mate is driving you to distraction.
And see here for more info about Game On!