Comments (0) Best Outdoor Festival - 2011
Howl! Festival
Every year for three days in early June, the Howl! Festival takes over Tompkins Square Park and fills it with poetry, music, dance, and balloon art, all in celebration of Allen Ginsberg's raunchy but officially not obscene poem "Howl." The fest is family friendly: There's all sorts of face-painting and carnival games for kids in the afternoon. But grown-ups are the real target audience, especially with the fest's kickoff, a group reading of "Howl" that tends to put the James Franco movie to shame. The festival's most outstanding event is also the most daring—the Sunday-night "Low Life" variety revue of drag queens, go-go dancers, and Butoh performers, presented by the Jackie Factory, which is legendary for mixing high camp with serious dollops of history. Last time around, they gave a nod to clubs and festivals of the past, from the protest performance art of ACT UP to the outdoor drag festival Wigstock (which originated in the same park), all while serving two hours of subversive entertainment. It was obscenely good. howlfestival.com
