Four hundred years after Henry Hudson sailed down the river that now bears his name, the Dutch are returning with a vengeance — with a lavish arts festival on Governors Island, a five-minute ferry ride from lower Manhattan.
Today through Sunday and again Sept. 17-20, the New Island Festival will transform the former military base into an outdoor playground of theater, art, music, food, dance and some events — a man walking on water, a cow jumping through a hoop — that simply defy categorization.
Many events are free; others require separate admission from $5 and up. A $35 one-day festival pass will get you entry to most of the events each day.
Theater lovers will probably gravitate to “La Voix Humaine” (“The Human Voice”), the classic Jean Cocteau monologue staged by Ivo van Hove, who gave us last season’s much-debated “Hedda Gabler.”
Other events include “Orfeo,” a music-theater work based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, followed by a lavish Mediterranean dinner; a living jukebox composed of two women; and throngs of headphone-wearing people dancing wildly but noiselessly (“Silent Disco”).
You can also catch “Wind Nomads,” an art installation of paintings — one for each year following Hudson’s voyage — blowing with the wind, and the festival’s showpiece: the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Grandiosely described as “the coolest street in the world,” this one boasts multiple performance stages, artists’ tents, bars and a 400-foot-long communal table, the site of nightly “Captain’s Dinners” of Dutch and European cuisine.
The ferry for the island leaves from the Battery Maritime Building, next to the Staten Island Ferry. For tickets and info, visit NewIslandFestival.com.
Interesting side trip: There’s another Dutch treat in store at the South Street Seaport Museum. Its exhibit “New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World” opens Sunday. For more information, go to southstreetseaportmuseum.org.