Showing posts with label Goldstar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goldstar. Show all posts

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, America

~ The Memorial Day Weekend is considered the official start of summer in America, and I wish I was there to see the summer in. Since I’m not, I thought I might at least point lucky visitors and locals to a few of my favorite New York-centric websites and events.

Over the past 50 years, more than five million people have enjoyed free productions of plays by William Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This year The Comedy of Errors is the Public Theater’s choice for their free annual Shakespeare In The Park production. The play kicks off Tuesday, May 28 and runs through until Sunday, June 30, 2013. All shows begin at 8:30 PM.​​​, and there is no intermission during the 90 minute performance.

Among the actors featuring in this year’s production will be Jesse Tyler Ferguson, one of the stars of Modern Family, Hamish Linklater, and Becky Ann Baker.
If you want to join the audience, you are advised to line up early on the day of performance.
​Free tickets are distributed on each performance day from 12:00 PM (midday) via the free lines at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Tickets are for the daily performance only. You can not line up to get tickets for the following day, or for an upcoming performance.
Once The Comedy of Errors finishes its run it will be followed by Love's Labour's Lost, A New Musical​, which is of course, a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love's Labour's Lost. This production will run from July 23 - August 18​, 2013.

More information: Shakespeare In The Park…

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I have written about this website before here… This is my ‘go to’ site for cheap tickets to a whole range of events in New York City and beyond. Via Goldstar you can find tickets (many at half their box office price) to numerous theatre productions and major sporting events, as well as walking tours, harbor cruises and much more. The great thing about Goldstar is that discount tickets are available for similar events in more than 30 other cities across the United States.

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SummerStage is another annual arts and music program of New York’s, City Parks Foundation. It schedules a host of free events throughout the summer months, and 2013 will be no exception. As in previous years, the artists chosen for the 2013 program represent a wide range of genres and cultures, and perform in outdoor settings accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. I was lucky to see one of my favourite performers, the late Gil Scott-Heron performing as part of the 2010 SummerStage concert series, and I am very grateful to the City Parks Foundation for giving me that opportunity.

SummerStage strives to develop a deep appreciation for contemporary, traditional, and emerging artists as well as the communities in which these artists originate. All SummerStage shows go on ‘rain or shine’, and are only cancelled if extreme weather events are forecasted.

You can follow SummerStage on Twitter and Like them on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest SummerStage fan content and contest opportunities.

More Information: Summerstage...

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Good things are said to come in three’s, and the above three sections point to three of the best in my experience. If you are visiting New York City for the first time, you are in for a treat, and I can only wish I was there with you. All things being equal, I plan on visiting America and New York City again next year, so you can be sure the next twelve months will be filled with much anticipation, and forward planning. I can hardly wait.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Visiting Attractions On A Budget in New York City


After hotel costs, transport and food, one of the biggest additions to the cost of any travel is the cost of sightseeing and visiting city attractions. In a city like New York, which has more places to visit than one could reasonably expect to see in a life time of travel, any system that helps reduce costs has to be worth looking at. In this post I want to write specifically about my two favorite ‘go to’ sites that offer the chance to score tickets to a wide range of events at vastly reduced prices. These are TKTS and Goldstar.

Most visitors to New York City, and the locals living there full time, are aware that discounted tickets to many New York theatre productions – including popular Broadway shows – can be found by visiting one of the city’s TKTS outlets.

The Theatre Development Fund (TDF), is the not-for-profit performing arts service organization that operates the TKTS Discount Booths. TKTS Discount Booths offer tickets to Broadway and Off Broadway musicals and plays at up to 50% off. The (TDF) operates three TKTS Discount Booths in New York City.

1. The Times Square Booth (under the red steps at Broadway and 47th Street), sells day-of-performance discount tickets. You can also purchase full-price tickets to future performances for all shows and same-day full-price tickets to shows that aren't being discounted.
2. The Downtown Brooklyn Booth (in 1 MetroTech Center, at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue Promenade, Brooklyn), sells tickets to evening performances on the day of the performance and matinee tickets the day before as well as tickets to Brooklyn performing arts events.
3. The South Street Seaport Booth  (in the Seaport Marketplace at the corner of Front and John Streets, Manhattan) sells tickets to evening performances on the day of the performance and matinee tickets the day before. NOTE: As of this posting, the booth is closed until further notice due to water damage from Hurricane Sandy. Keep an eye on the TKTS website for news and information regarding when this booth will reopen.

All locations sell tickets at 50%, 40%, 30% and 20% off full price (plus a $4.00 per ticket service charge, which helps support other TDF services and programs. Availability and ticket inventory change throughout the day and are always at the discretion of individual theatre productions. Currently you are not able to purchase discounted tickets to shows in New York City via the Theatre Development Fund website. You have to visit a TKTS Booth personally, or use one of the apps available for this purpose (see below).

Goldstar states that it has the largest online listing of half-price offers to live entertainment in the world, and I’m not about to argue with that. I first learned about Goldstar in 2010 while on a nine hour cruise from Manhattan to Bear Mountain (up the Hudson River) with the Classic Harbor Line, for which I had paid US$160.00. A fellow passenger, who had purchased her ticket through Goldstar had only paid US$90.00, for her discounted ticket.

Unlike TKTS, which only sells discounted tickets to theatre shows in New York City, I have since used Goldstar to buy discounted tickets to major league baseball games, theatre shows, roller derby events, harbor cruises, and more. As I write, Goldstar are selling tickets for the three hour Bateaux New York Dinner Cruises during March and April priced at around $99.65-$103.65, compared with the full price of $166.10-$172.75. Considerable savings by any measure. Alternatively, the Central Park Walking Tour they are also currently selling is half priced ($22.50 instead of $45.00) for dates during March and April.

The really great news is that again, unlike the TKTS Booths which are only available in New York City, Goldstar offers discounts to hundreds of events in more than 30 cities across the United States. These include Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. An added bonus is that Goldstar tickets can be bought online through their website, and via their iPhone app (see below).

There’s an App For That!
Both TKTS and Goldstar have apps available to make it easy for visitors to purchase tickets without the hassle of joining long queues. According to information about the TKTS app at iTunes:
The Official TKTS app, available free of charge for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone, is the only way to get fast, accurate, real-time listings of all Broadway and Off Broadway shows available at the world-famous TKTS Discount Booths in New York City. The Official TKTS app is directly linked to the display boards at the TKTS Discount Booths, so what you're seeing, in real time, is exactly what the people waiting in line are seeing.
TKTS Discount Apps

Goldstar Weekend App
Currently, the Goldstar Weekend App is only available for the iPhone...

Note: This app is being marketed specifically as the Goldstar Weekend app, and as the name suggests, the app appears to offer event discounts for weekend performances only. Here’s what Goldstar themselves say about the app:
You might be busy this weekend, but a packed schedule doesn’t mean you have something fun to do, right? That’s where Goldstar Weekend comes in. Goldstar Weekend helps you discover and buy tickets to music, sports, theater, comedy and more in two minutes or less. Upon launch, you are taken to the closest weekend day. There you can browse up to 10 top events in your area, read about them and share with friends.

I myself have not used either of the above apps, so I can not offer comments or reviews of their ease of use or other comments. In fact, until I sat down to write this post, I didn’t know the two companies had apps, and for all I know the apps weren’t available when I was visiting New York City during the summer of 2012. However, I have used the TKTS booths while in New York City, and in the case of Goldstar, I have always made a point of pre-booking events via the full website, before my arrival in the city. Using the Goldstar website, you can purchase discounted tickets non-weekend events.
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