Springsteen, Paul Simon, Jennifer Hudson to Headline NYC Concert

(Bloomberg) -- Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson will be among the performers at an Aug. 21 Central Park celebration of New York City's comeback from the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The concert will be part of a “Homecoming Week” intended to market the city to tourists in an effort to bring back an industry that once welcomed more than 60 million visitors a year.

“This concert is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” de Blasio said last month in announcing the show.

More acts will be booked before the event, which is expected to last several hours, the mayor said during a news briefing Thursday.

The concert will be held on the park's Great Lawn, with a capacity of about 60,000 people. The mayor didn't answer a question about how the city would control the crowd, especially if its size exceeds that.

“We intend to do this in a safe manner,” de Blasio said. “The event is meant to be for a large crowd. It's going to be a historic event, to say the least.”

De Blasio noted that Simon grew up locally in Queens and said of Springsteen, who returned to Broadway late last month with his one-man show, “he's from New Jersey but no one's perfect.” Hudson hails from Chicago.

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