Photo from the 2023 World Music Festival. Courtesy of QUIP.
Sept. 13, 2024 By Shane O’Brien
A global music festival featuring artists from all over the world is set to take place at Sunnyside Gardens next Saturday.
The Queens United International Party’s (QUIP) 7th-annual World Music Festival will take place at Sunnyside Gardens at 48-21 39th Ave. from 4-10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21. Adult entry is $15, with proceeds supporting park upkeep and events. Kids 12 and under are free.
The annual festival celebrates Queens’ “incredible diversity,” providing music, dance performances, and kids’ crafts from different cultures around the world.
It also features a variety of international food vendors, including The Burrito Factory, Mom’s Momos, Jam Rock Jerk and MozzArepas.
Alewife Brewing, a popular taproom in Sunnyside, will be providing beverages for the event.
This year’s event will feature performances from renowned kora player Yacouba Sissoko, with Colombian artist Alea bringing her unique sound that blends cumbia, vallenato, rancheras, pop and jazz.
Uruguayan electronic artist Somer Suarez will open the festival, followed by Malini Srinivasan, a third-generation Bharatanatyam artist dedicated to spreading a deep understanding of Indian classical traditions.
The event also features a performance from the unique group Fogo Azul, all-women, trans, and non-binary Brazilian Samba Reggae drum line, while hula-hooping sensation Pinkie Special will also be performing on the night.
Liftoff Brass Band, incorporates New York’s current generation of musicians who are revitalizing the brass-band sound, and the Akoko Nante Ensemble, a Queens-based Ghanaian group that threads the music of many nations into one tapestry, complete the line-up for the 2024 QUIP World Music Festival.
The festival will take place on two alternating stages in Sunnyside Gardens.
Quinn O’Sullivan, one of the QUIP organizers, said the upcoming festival will draw a crowd of around 2,000 people spanning generations and ethnicities.
“The Queens United International Party has become an event that spans generations, races, ethnicities and social classes,” O’Sullivan said in a statement.
“We have created a space where adults can have the freedom to dance like children and children have a chance to own the dance floor like adults. Since its inception, it has since grown to be one of the park’s biggest annual events with around 2,000 people attending last year.”
