The Village Trip is an annual festival celebrating Arts and Activism
across Greenwich Village and the East Village

2026 DATES: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4

TVT2026: Celebrating Voices that Changed the World

Still four months to go until The Village Trip 2026 kicks off on the final weekend of September. Most of the pieces are falling into place and we are excited to reveal some of the highlights. Not all of them – we’ll have still more to share in a couple of weeks!

Revolutionary Voices

In America’s big birthday year, The Village Trip will be celebrating not Independence but the Revolution that brought it about. What it meant, what it promised, and how the events of the last 250 years have changed so many lives, in America and around the world. Revolutionary Voices is our theme, and we’re tapping into the veins of the musical, theatrical, literary, artistic, and social-activist history of the Village to create an exciting and thought-provoking program that celebrates some of the people who have made a difference since the colonists declared the first No Kings Day, swapping George III for George Washington.

Paul Robeson

We’re thrilled to welcome back acclaimed baritone James Martin, who will perform a very special concert celebrating Paul Robeson, a true renaissance figure who used his magnificent voice to speak out against injustice wherever he saw it, whatever the personal cost. Robeson’s rise to stardom is rooted in the avant-garde and bohemian culture of 1920s Greenwich Village, where he was cast as the lead in Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings at the Provincetown Playhouse. He knew, or at least crossed paths with, many of the other figures we are celebrating.

Paul Robeson and James Martin
Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

We’re thrilled to be partnering with New York City Children’s Theater to honor Woody Guthrie, the great Dust Bowl Balladeer whose 3,000 songs include “This Land Is Your Land,” America’s unofficial national anthem. Written by Frank Ruiz, Songs to Grow On is NYCCT’s brand-new interactive show based on Woody’s 1956 album Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child, which was inspired by Woody and Marjory’s cross-country road trip with their daughter, Cathy, a little girl who’s asking big questions about the world around her.

It will launch this year’s expanded kids’ programming which includes songwriting classes for today’s would-be troubadours, and a reprise of Classical Cool, a family concert featuring The Village Trip Festival Orchestra and Village Choristers.

The Village Trip Lecture: Dorothy Day

Robert Ellsberg, who helped his father Daniel photocopy what came to be known as The Pentagon Papers, will deliver the annual Village Trip Lecture devoted to his mentor and friend Dorothy Day. The founder of the Catholic Worker, she crossed paths in the Village with Robeson and Guthrie and famously declared: "Conscience is a muscle—the less you use it, the weaker it is." Amen to that.

Musical Activism

Janis Siegel and Lauren Kinhan and friends bring their Vocal Gumbo series to The Village Trip with an evening celebrating musical activism. Expect an embarrassment of musical riches. And the ever-versatile Janie Barnett salutes Cole Porter, who revolutionized popular song with his sophisticated style and risqué lyrics, proving that anything goes!

The classical and new music program, directed by William Anderson and Joan Forsyth, continues our revolutionary theme. The ensemble Poetica Musica will open the festival with We The People: 250 Years, after which we will adjourn for an evening of American folk and grassroots music, hosted by David Amram, The Village Trip’s Artist Emeritus, and the festival’s guiding spirit. And there’s Women’s Work, an evening dedicated to music and poetry by women creators. A reminder, as if one were needed, that in the Village women were often the changemakers!

Miles Davis and John Coltrane

Maestro Amram has lived more history than most of us. In Miles and Trane at 100, David and his Quintet will reflect on the early days of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, honoring the ever-evolving musical landscape that followed the passing of Charlie Parker in 1955. Jazz was on the cusp of revolution, and David was both witness and participant, in the smoky dive bars of the Village – a place where, as Dylan wrote, there’s always been “music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air.”

Miles Davis (by Palumbo) and John Contrane in 1963

Washington Square Park Free Concert

Finally – at least for now – our signature free concert in Washington Square Park will take place this year on the opening weekend of The Village Trip. We are delighted to present The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, whose Woodstock-tinged psychedelia, with subtle accents of southern rock, Celtic and British folk, is as delicious a slice of Americana pie as you’re ever likely to find. Prepare to be blown away!

The Slambovian Circus of Dreams

Mark your calendars and get festival-fit – because there’ll be no time for sleeping when The Village Trip comes to town on September 25!

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Liz & Cliff

THE VILLAGE TRIP READING LIST

A selection from the reading list compiled for The Village Trip by Three Lives & Company, Booksellers

Three Lives and Co logo

Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Kafka Was the Rage by Anatole Broyard
Growing Up Bank Street by Donna Florio
The Village by John Strausbaugh

The Village Trip Mission Statement

To uplift, to entertain and to celebrate the arts for all New Yorkers, their families and all people from around the world who come to visit Downtown Manhattan’s special oases, Greenwich Village and the East Village.

 FESTIVAL PARTNERS

The Village Trip Festival thanks its sponsors, partners and supporters.

Media partner WFUV radio
Washington Square Hotel logo
New York University logo
conEdison logo

Travel and Tourism Awards logo

 

The Village Trip has been named Best Urban Celebration Event 2025
in the LUXElife Magazine Travel & Tourism Awards 2025

New York City AIDS Memorial
David Amram
walking tour
opening event audience
Earth Requiem