There is arguably no more reliable sign of summer’s impending arrival than the release of the Celebrate Brooklyn! lineup.

Now in its 38th year, the Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is an annual, summer-long music festival that brings various free performances to Brooklyn, as well as some paid-entry benefit shows.

The season kicks off on June 8 with Brooklyn’s own Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, with later highlights including influential punk rockers the Violent Femmes, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, and world-music icon Femi Kuti, son of legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.

Along with the musical events, the lineup also includes various dance performances and movie screenings.

All events listed below will take place at the Prospect Park Bandshell, located just beyond the 9th Street entrance to the park in Park Slope. The free events take place on a first-come, first-served basis, with the select number of chairs and prime lawn space often filling up quickly, especially for more popular performers. Start times vary, with most performances beginning between 7 and 8 p.m.

To purchase tickets to the benefit concerts and for more information regarding the free performances, see BRIC’s website.

celebrate brooklyn 2016
Photo via BRIC

Complete lineup of free 2016 Celebrate Brooklyn! events
June 8: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
June 11: Dan Zanes’ Lead Belly Project and TADA! Youth Theater
June 16: Baaba Maal and Lakou Mizik
June 17: Violent Femmes and Kristin Hersh
June 23: Alvvays, Ducktails, and Big Thief
June 24: ¡Cubanismo! and Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
June 25: Philadanco
July 7: Red Baraat’s Brooklyn Mela
July 8: Josh Ritter, Martha Redbone, and Birds of Chicago
July 9: Carla Morrison, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Buscabulla
July 14: The Triplets of Belleville with live score by Benoit Charest and Jessica Fichot
July 15: Rachid Taha and Krar Collective
July 16: The Wood Brothers, Aoife O’Donovan, and Hiss Golden Messenger
July 21: Camille A. Brown & Dancers BLACK GIRL: LINGUISTIC PLAY and Brandee Younger
July 22: Femi Kuti and Bombino
July 23: Jon Batiste and Stay Human & Friends
July 28: Gregory Porter and Marcus Strickland & Twi-Life
July 29: Angelique Kidjo’s Celia Cruz Tribute with Pedrito Martinez and Yosvany Terry Quintet
July 30: Digable Planets and Camp Lo
August 4: Run Lola Run with live score by The Bays and Joan as Police Woman & Benjamin Lazar Davis
August 5: Morgan Heritage and British Dependency
August 6: The Hubble Cantata and Tigue
August 10: Labyrinth and Donny McCaslin Group
August 12: Dr. Dog with The Knights
August 13: Andra Day and Son Little

Benefit concerts
June 14: Tame Impala
June 15: Tame Impala
June 22: Ray LaMontagne
July 26: Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs
August 2: Beirut
August 3: The Lumineers
August 11: Herbie Hancock

Below, Os Mutantes play last year’s festival:

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