A chunk of the Great Lawn in Central Park was so badly damaged during last month’s rain-soaked Global Citizen Festival that the beloved greenspace had to close for the season earlier than anticipated so months-long repairs could get underway.The immediate closure prompted New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer to call for the annual festival’s relocation after heavy rain, foot traffic and machinery used for staging “destroyed one-third” of the park’s 55-acre Great Lawn.The Central Park Conservancy determined that the damage required the “immediate closure of the lawn” so the grass could be re-seeded, she wrote in a letter to Mayor Eric Adams on Monday. “As a result, 12 acres of public greenspace will be unavailable to New Yorkers until April 2024 or later, all to accommodate a one-day event,” Brewer wrote. “I have never been a fan of the Global Citizen Festival because so little, if any, of the grants are allocated to non-profits in New York City.”
