When summer hits New York City, Brooklyn flips the script on normal. Sure, you could hit a regular street fair... or you could dance under a bridge with drag queens, eat smoky jollof while shopping Ankara prints or vibe to indie beats with a skyline view.
Here are four underrated summer festivals and events in Brooklyn that keep the borough eclectic, in the best way possible.
1. LadyLand Festival
📍 Under The K Bridge Park (Gardner Ave. & Thomas St.), Greenpoint
📅 Fri–Sat, June 27–28, 2025
Forget your average Pride party, this one’s a full-on queer utopia beneath the Kosciuszko Bridge. LadyLand is glitter-soaked, drag-drenched and packed with enough pop royalty to make your head spin. Yes, that’s Cardi B and FKA twigs sharing the lineup. With three stages of jaw-dropping performances, it’s less “festival” and more glitter-drenched fever dream.
2. African Pop-up Festival
📍 Hillel Plaza (Flatbush Ave. & Nostrand Ave.), Flatbush
📅 July 26, 2025
Flatbush transforms into a full-on celebration of the continent, no passport needed. The African Pop-up Festival is a high-energy mix of Afrobeat dance-offs, jollof rice so good it should be illegal and stalls overflowing with Ankara fashion, crafts and bold colors. It's basically a one-day staycation to Lagos, Accra, Nairobi and beyond.
3. Planet Brooklyn Music Festival
📍 Barclays Center, BAM, Brooklyn Paramount & more - Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene
📅 Sat–Sun, August 23–24, 2025
From Hip Hop to house, R&B to indie, and a galaxy of surprise performers, this is the kind of festival where you blink and miss the best set of your life. Bonus: pop-up vendor markets to snag that weird-cool thing you didn’t know you needed.
4. Fun and Dumb Improv Festival
📍Eris, BCC Pig Pen - Williamsburg
📅 Thu-Sun, July 10-13, 2025
750 + performers. 200+ shows. 3 Stages. Workshops galore. The four-day festival celebrates fearless and irreverent improv comedy from night to early morning. A summer camp in Fool's Heaven.
