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I was able to experience a McCarren Park Pool Concert when I attended a Gogol Bordello performance in June

The venue was practical and fun. Due to the tremendous amount of space, my friend and I could stand as close or as far away from the stage as we wanted while still having the band in view. The ample space in and around the pool gave people the opportunity to dance, sit, picnic, walk without squeezing through tight crowds to use the Porta-Johns, take pictures, and not worry about being stepped on, squashed, or elbowed.

I am, however, happy for the Brooklyn residents that will soon be able to have access to a city pool. As a current suburbanite and Brooklynite by birth, I must admit that city folks can benefit from cool summer fun.

Since the folks behind McCarren Park Pool were able to pull off such a great place for the arts and fun, another savy, creative bunch of entreprenuers can certainly find a new venue that has all that McCarren offered . . . maybe more.

It's a real shame that we (JellyNYC) never were mentioned on the McCarren Pool story. We are the entity solely responsible (with the help of sponsors) for the entire concept of the Pool Parties series and have worked extremely hard the last three years to pull them off. The piece itself was good, but to completely be ignored was a bit disappointing to us considering the time, energy and effort we put into what became such a phenomenon in New York.

The Pool is in Greenpoint!
next - it was closed due to the racism of the area - kids from the projects were swiming in the pool and the nabe requested it be closed.

Clear channel nation will not be missed.

The new nabe has been actively fighting to get the pool reopened since the late 80's. We need parks for the area.

The pool was primarily used to help realestate developers attract wall street, the NY timesians wealthy trust fund hipsters to the area.

I have lots of nostalgia tied up in the McCarren Park pool, because I grew up 2 blocks away from the park (in Greenpoint). From the playground, which in the mid-80s was covered w/ broken glass & busted concrete, the pool was a barbed-wire fenced space of mystery in my little-kid world.
The best best best performance I saw there, and in my opinion the best use of the pool as a space, was Noemie Lafrance's Agora dance performance in 2005. That it was my first time inside the gates of the pool may have elevated the experience, but as far as Im concerned nothing else topped it.

hi. i stand to benefit as does the neigborhood, now we will have healthier hipsterse.

i want to give a shout out as a member of the 26 year/25 mile swimmers who completed their milage with the early bird and especially those at the hamilton fish pool who will be relocating back to the metropolitan pool when the outdoors close down for lap swimmers friday. enjoy your last laps and look forward to seeing you swimming in the mccarren park pool whenever that happens.

can we talk about capital funding for this project?

MGMT! amazing show!

the free shows were great even if you didn't like the music. so much people watching to be done. my favorite moment was deerhoof starting thier set while questlove of the roots was still djing. he just kept going with them. amazing. even though i found out later he was mad they cut into his time.

McCarren Park Pool was definitely a fun and totally unique venue to hang with friends on a hot summer's day. The pool parties were always fun with FREE MUSIC... And THAT is the point: If you're not paying then it's fun to swoosh about the pool area while listening to some good tunes regardless of the fact that the band sounded like they were playing in...well...A HUGE EMPTY POOL! As a music venue where tickets had to be payed for, it was daylight robbery. Awful sound fine if it's free and / or a sideline like the Pool parties; but to charge for it? SHAME!! Never-the-less it is always sad to see odd-ball venues close and I shall miss drinking beer in the blazing sun and then shouting "Yehaaah!" as I charge the water slide.

The main reason I am sad about the closing of the McCarren pool is that it was hosting the free Pool Parties. They were terrific: each week you'd have a great main act and really good opening, often local, acts. You could see all the williamsburg artists in the crowd (the YYY guitarist, TVOR people, etc) intertwined with non-musicians. You could see hipsters, kids, parents, all mixed together.

And the performance at these unique moment were unique as well. I think a lot of it had to do with the musicians facing the sun in the hot afternoon of the summer (OK, when it was not raining). I'll always remember the Blonde Redhead last year (the famous quotes of the lady "I drank a little bit of wine" and "i feel like brooklyn is more home than japan") and the Deerhunter show this year, amazingly relevant to the crowd, with its "these wall are your delay pedal, brooklyn is your delay pedal, new york is your delay pedal".

So I will miss this venue for those events !!!

For "regular events", ie paid show, I don't think it's a miss: they were expensive and the sound was not great.