Latest news with #RandallsIsland
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Summit Is Bringing EDM Festival Scene Back to New York With Experts Only Fest
John Summit is bringing a new electronic festival to New York, with the superstar DJ unveiling the first-ever Experts Only Festival NYC on Monday. Experts Only, which bears the name of Summit's Experts Only record label, will take place Sept. 20-21 on Randall's Island and will have Summit headlining both nights with a supporting cast including Kaskade, Cassian, Green Velvet, Layton Giordani, LP Giobbi, Kasablanca, Ayybo and Roddy Lima, among others. The full lineup is below. More from The Hollywood Reporter AI Music Company Suno Hires Former Atlantic Records GM Paul Sinclair As Chief Music Officer Pearl Jam Drummer Matt Cameron Leaves Band After 27 Years Lauryn Hill Performs Strongly in Nearly Empty Stadium Until 3:37 a.m. After Essence Festival Runs Way Behind As Summit tells The Hollywood Reporter, he's looking for Experts Only to 'fill the gap' in the largest market in the country. New York has been without a marquee EDM festival since Electric Zoo infamously went under back in 2023, leaving with it a demand Summit is hoping he can fill on his own. 'I've always wanted to throw my own festival, and that's why I've been growing the Experts Only brand for so many years,' Summit says. 'Obviously we were thinking of where to do this, it could've been Chicago since that's where I'm from, or maybe Miami, but there's so many festivals there. New York is not only one of my favorite markets, it's one of the biggest in the world, and there's literally no electronic festival. There's a glaring gap in the market, it's a no-brainer for us to do New York.' As Summit's manager Holt Harmon adds: 'As electronic music fans, the fact that there's not a staple New York festival for electronic music at the moment is something we felt heavily, this is something that needs to occur.' Tickets go on sale this Friday, with GA tickets starting at $119.99, VIP tickets at $299.99 and platinum tickets at $799.99. A dollar from each sale will be donated to the nonprofit Femme House, the festival said. Summit is putting on the event in partnership with promoters Medium Rare, Relentless Beats, and EMW. Experts Only expects to draw 50,000 people across two days. Summit and his team had been loosely considering options for a festival for the past couple years, his manager Holt Harmon says, with festival planning becoming more serious after Summit's sold-out Madison Square Garden show last year. (Summit managed to sell out the venue in less than two hours.) They'd long considered Randall's Island given that it has a proven history as a festival venue as the previous home for Electric Zoo, and after shopping around for potential venues, they 'came back on this opportunity we didn't really think would exist,' Harmon says. 'New York is an extremely difficult place to just get the keys to,' Harmon says. 'There was definitely interest from the city in having something come back in the electronic realm after E-zoo. But they want to know that not only is this something that'd happen one year, but that people are going to come back and try to make this a multi-year thing. Once we found the right partners to work with, especially guys who understood the politics and permitting of this market and venue, this really felt like the step for us to take.' Summit is launching his event at a challenging time for festivals, as several long-running shows like Pitchfork Festival in Chicago or Desert Daze in Southern California had closed up shop in the past few years as festivals have grown increasingly costly to produce. That doesn't shake the DJ's confidence, with Summit talking already about goals and aspirations for years ahead, loosely opining on more markets as well. 'We want our own imprint on the scene and to be an international presence since I'm an international artist. I'm not looking at just confining this to New York, but New York is the baby right now, It's 100 percent of the focus,' Summit says. 'And so when I'm thinking of the short term, which is a few years, hopefully year one goes great. As a perfectionist, we will have notes to make it even better the following year. And hopefully it can be an annual thing.' Summit hopes Experts Only can stand out through music curation, with Summit saying that lineups 'can get stale' as they 'get recycled year after year.' For Experts Only's year one, Summit is curating a lineup based around his musical influences, tapping veterans like Kaskade and Green Velvet as well as up and comers and artists across his Experts Only Label. 'There's some festivals out there that are really great at growing new artists, hopefully this can be one of them. Festivals are a reason why I got big. Think of the amount of careers that Ultra or Coachella broke, I'd like that for Experts Only, too.' As it gets its start, Experts Only is obviously synonymous with John Summit, though the DJ's longer term goal is for the show to become a broader, bespoke event less focused around him that becomes more a part of the fabric of the electronic community. 'The John Summit side of things is doing well, this is a passion project for me,' Summit says. 'The goal eventually is that I won't even have to headline it or potentially even play it. I don't want it to be seen as just a John Summit-headlined festival wherever it goes.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025
Forbes
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
Brooklyn And Columbus Tighten The Major League Pickleball Playoff Chase In NYC
Brooklyn's star Rachel Rohrabacher helped power them to an undefeated weekend, thrusting themselves ... More firmly in the playoff race. Major League Pickleball (MLP) presented by DoorDash made the cross-country trip from San Clemente to host its seventh event of the season in New York. This year, they featured this event at a new NYC venue, namely the Sporttime Randalls' Island tennis facility within a stone's throw of LaGuardia nestled in the East river between Harlem and Long Island. Key Links for tracking the event this weekend, which featured livestreams from the two primary courts at the facility on MLP's YouTube channel and on Transaction Recap Ahead of the weekend, the following transactions were announced: - Carolina gets Etta Tuiotenoa, Texas gets Kaitlyn Christian & cash. So, this is an interesting and impactful move to MLP in general, because Etta Tuiotenoa is clearly a better doubles player than Christian, and Carolina's mixed teams have been a mess. They're nearly in last place though, but this move reunites Ben Johns with a favorite mixed partner in Etta (with whom he won several titles back in 2023 while the team was the Seattle Pioneers). Is this the move that spurs Carolina to success? Meanwhile, this move seems to make Texas weaker in doubles, but stronger in DreamBreakers. But, you have to GET to the DreamBreaker to win. It should be interesting to see how Christian gels with her new teammates, who have high expectations of competing with the league's best. - Bay Area gets Querrey, Atlanta gets Roddy for its bench. A curiously timed move if anything; Sam Querrey will immediately miss the NYC event for his new Challenger team since he'll be on two weeks' of broadcast duties at Wimbledon for the Tennis Channel. So Bay Area rids itself of a capable player to have to immediately use an on-site sub. Weird. As for the value of the move; is Querrey an improvement over Roddy? I don't think so. - As the matches unfolded this weekend, we found out about a slew of missing names for major teams, which we'll mention as they come up. Top players missing at least one day of the competition included Parris Todd, Jay Devilliers, Dekel Bar, and the aforementioned Sam Querrey, who was replaced in Challenger by none other than Collin Johns (who has traded a Premier spot playing alongside his brother with on-site super-sub duties). Premier League Recap Super-sub AJ Koller (R) teamed with Brooklyn's Riley Newman (L) in NYC. Day 1 Observations Day 2 Observations Day 3 Observations Day 4 Observations Carolina's new acquisition Etta Tuionetoa helped Carolina back into the playoff hunt. Challenger League Recap Anderson Scarpa is a big reason why Nashville went 5-0 to open up the Challenger playoff race. Day 1 Observations Day 2 Observations Day 3 Observations Day 4 Observations Team Standings Update post Event Here's the teams who made moves up or down the Standings in this event. In Premier In Challenger Player Standings/Stats Analysis for the Weekend: In Premier In Challenger What did we learn this weekend? What were our top three Takeaways from the competition this weekend? Matt Klitch Media Pick' Em Contest Update MLP Super-Fan Matty Pickles (aka Matt Klitch) runs a season-long Media MLP Pick'em Contest on Twitter, where all the pundits in the sport are participating. I had an excellent weekend, going 7-1 in his competition to remain in the season-long lead. The only missed pick was my picking Las Vegas to go undefeated. Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, MLP heads to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the 2025 Beer City Open and mid-season knockout tournament. Yours truly will be in Michigan for a couple days covering the event and doing some interviews. If you're onsite, I'd love to catch up and chat, whether you're a player, fan, team owner, or league executive. DM me on Twitter or Facebook to sync up. All match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 22,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours. Also, a great thanks to The Dink's Erik Tice, who maintains a fantastic MLP detailed data breakdown and makes it publicly available at this Google XLS link. Tice's data has proved invaluable this year as MLP does not make match data available at this detailed level at present.
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Nike's Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon And The Global Branding Moonshot
Athlete, Faith Kipyegon, running the 1500m race at the Athlos NYC track meet at Randalls Island in ... More New York, US, on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. Alexis Ohanian aims to shake up women's track with Athlos, an event combining music, racing and bigger prize money. Photographer: Bryan Banducci/Bloomberg Nike's Breaking4 isn't just a race. It's a branding moonshot that's rewriting the playbook for women's sport. On June 26th in Paris, middle-distance legend Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become the first woman in history to run a sub-four-minute mile. While the world watches the clock, Nike is staging something parallel in ambition, different in form: a global campaign that fuses performance science, emotional storytelling, and cultural reframing into a single, high-stakes brand moment. Faith Kipyegon is accomplishing what was once thought impossible. By breaking records and redefining the limits of human performance, she is not just competing; she is transforming the narrative of what women can achieve in sports. Her journey is a testament to resilience, vision, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. This isn't corporate posturing. Nike's Breaking4 and Faith Kipyegon's quest aren't just aligned—they are reflections of the same belief: that boldness, when shared, can shift culture. One brand, one athlete, betting on the impossible together. With echoes of its ground-shifting Breaking2 marathon project, Nike's Breaking4 is building not only toward a finish line - but toward a shift in perception, visibility, and belief around women's athletic potential. Here's how the Swoosh is turning one athlete's quest into a multi-platform experience designed to inspire the world. What Is a Branding Moonshot? A branding moonshot is when a company invests in an audacious, high-risk campaign designed to redefine cultural narratives, not just market share. It's less about immediate ROI and more about reshaping what a brand stands for - and what's possible in its category. In the case of Breaking4, Nike isn't simply promoting a race; it's engineering a historic first, amplifying a human story, and challenging generational assumptions about gender and athletic limits. It's not marketing for margin - it's marketing for meaning. As Gillian Oakenfull highlights in her Forbes article, 'Winning With Women's Sports: Executing The KickGlass Marketing Playbook', brands that lead with purpose and authenticity in the women's sports market are not just driving cultural change but also achieving significant brand growth. Her assertion that 'being a force for good and driving brand growth are one and the same' underscores the strategic alignment of Nike's Breaking4 campaign with a broader cultural and commercial shift. Innovation as Experience Design At the heart of this effort is a campaign built on Nike's deepest brand truth: relentless innovation. That commitment is perhaps most evident in the technology Nike has developed around Kipyegon, who currently holds the women's mile world record at 4:07.64. For her Breaking4 bid, Nike has designed a 'Speed Kit' from the ground up. Kipyegon will wear a pair of Victory Elite FK spikes - featherlight at 85 grams and equipped with Zoom Air pods that return up to 90% of energy with each stride. Anchored by a razor-thin carbon plate and titanium pins, the shoe is tuned to her exact biomechanics. But the real revolution lies above the ankle. Nike's Fly Suit - a one-piece aerodynamic race suit - features textured bumps called Aeronodes that manipulate airflow to reduce drag, much like the dimples on a golf ball. Strategically ventilated and sculpted for compression in the right places, it's designed to help Kipyegon conserve energy at 15 mph over four punishing laps. And perhaps the most radical innovation of all? The FlyWeb Bra - a 3D-printed, seamless piece of racewear designed specifically for Kipyegon. Printed from thermoplastic polyurethane and mapped to her anatomy using computational design, it delivers support without bulk and breathability like nothing else on the market. It's not built for a season - it's built for a single mile. As Tim Newcomb reports in Forbes, Nike's innovation team worked directly with Kipyegon to prototype gear tailored to her biomechanics and race-day conditions—right down to the 3D-printed titanium pins in her spikes and the energy return of the Zoom Air unit. This is branding not as advertising, but as experience design. Every piece of gear reinforces Nike's identity as a performance-first innovator, engineered for athletes on the edge of what's possible. Mythologizing the Athlete: Storytelling With Stakes Great brands don't just market - they mythologize. And Nike, through its two-part docuseries on Prime Video, is doing just that. Titled Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile, the series chronicles not just Kipyegon's training, but her humanity: a mother, a champion, a dreamer chasing something once deemed out of reach. The campaign elevates what could have been a single live-stream into a global narrative arc. Part one builds anticipation, while part two, to be released post-race, ensures emotional connection regardless of the outcome. It's smart marketing - but it's also sincere storytelling. Orchestrating Belief on Social Media In an era of oversaturation, Nike's social strategy for Breaking4 is a masterclass in digital minimalism and emotional precision. On Instagram, the brand has prioritized cinematic short-form clips that center Kipyegon's voice, not slogans - giving fans intimate glimpses of her training, her family, and her dream. On X (formerly Twitter), Nike has leaned into threaded storytelling, breaking down everything from the biomechanics of pacing to the cultural significance of the mile barrier. Meanwhile, across TikTok and YouTube Shorts, the focus is on micro-moments of awe - Kipyegon floating in the Fly Suit, slow-motion spikes crushing the track - designed for shares, not sales. Hashtags like #Breaking4, #FaithInFaith, and the echo of Kipchoge's mantra #NoHumanIsLimited have fostered a digital groundswell. Rather than blast every platform with the same message, Nike has tailored each channel to amplify a different emotional note, turning social media into an orchestral score for belief. YouTube as the Global Stage While Prime Video hosts the docuseries, YouTube is Nike's open-access arena - the platform where the brand is livestreaming the race and releasing cinematic trailers, athlete features, and behind-the-scenes content. The official Breaking4 Live stream is already scheduled on Nike's YouTube channel, positioning the platform as the digital stadium for a global audience. It's a smart move: YouTube offers reach, shareability, and real-time engagement - all critical for turning a one-hour race into a worldwide moment of belief. Science as a Supporting Character What may be the most innovative - and understated - component of Breaking4 is Nike's investment in mindset as a performance variable. The company is leveraging cutting-edge biometric data, performance psychology, and even digital twin modeling to help Kipyegon visualize success and condition her physiology to deliver it. Using heart rate variability, lactate thresholds, and predictive simulations, Nike's Applied Performance Innovation team has mapped a detailed strategy for race day. Rotating pacers, pacing lights on the track, optimal weather windows - nothing is left to chance. It's performance art informed by performance science. And it's also branding at its most human. By treating the athlete not as a billboard but as a collaborator, Nike transforms the role of sponsorship into one of empowerment. The brand isn't just behind Kipyegon - it's beside her. Marketing as Mythology: Redefining the Finish Line Nike has long operated at the intersection of sport and society, and with Breaking4, it is once again pushing the boundaries of what achievement looks like - and who gets to define it. For decades, the sub-four-minute mile has been a milestone reserved for men, with Roger Bannister's 1954 breakthrough often serving as shorthand for transcending limits. By staging Kipyegon's attempt with as much fanfare, science, and spectacle as Kipchoge's Breaking2, Nike sends a clear message: women's excellence is just as worthy of mythology. This kind of parity in marketing investment - from product to production to promotion - is still rare in sport. That Nike has committed to such an effort sets a new benchmark not only for athletics, but for how brands contribute to shaping public perception and possibility. The Business of Belief Whether or not Kipyegon breaks four minutes, Nike's campaign is already a success. It owns the conversation, deepens brand affinity, and reinforces its core positioning: daring to dream bigger, run faster, and break what was thought unbreakable. This is branding as belief architecture. Not just betting on the impossible - but building the infrastructure that makes it plausible. In a world where hype fades fast and meaning endures, Nike's Breaking4 reminds us that the most powerful stories are the ones that dare to redefine the limits. Faith Kipyegon isn't the only one making a moonshot. Nike is right there with her through Breaking4 - not chasing speed, but meaning. Together, they're not just racing the clock. They're rewriting it.
CBS News
18-06-2025
- CBS News
Randall's Island beating victim is now breathing on her own. Here's what happened at the suspect's arraignment.
A woman who was given a 1% chance of surviving by doctors after being brutally attacked on Randall's Island last month has opened her eyes and can move her left arm. The man accused of randomly attacking her faced a judge on Wednesday. Randall's Island attack victim shows some positive signs Diana Agudelo, a 44-year-old mother of two, has been hospitalized since suffering a brutal beating last month on Randall's Island that left her with a traumatic brain injury and other injuries. "She was so full of life. She had so much to offer this world and now all she can do is just cry. She can't even talk," said Stephanie Rodas, the victim's daughter. "Just why? My mom didn't deserve this. She was just trying to get home from work." Although Agudelo is now breathing on her own, her daughter said she had another surgery Tuesday to remove fluid from her brain. "They put a tube through her spine to her brain to be able to take away that fluid, and she has been having fevers on and off. So there is an infection, but they don't know what's causing it," Rodas said. Suspect enters not guilty plea Miguel Jiraud pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to attempted murder, assault, and robbery charges. He is accused of attacking Agudelo on May 16 after she crossed the 103rd Street Bridge from Manhattan to Randall's Island. Prosecutors say the suspect's ankle monitor placed him in the vicinity of where Agudelo's body was found -- and at the shoreline at the same time they say an individual was spotted on surveillance dumping the victim's e-bike in the East River. She was found the next day in a grassy area between rocks. The prosecution is recommending 25 years to life for the attempted murder charge, and 20 years for robbery with five years probation. After Wednesday's arraignment, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called the alleged attack abhorrent. "I want to assure New Yorkers that we will ensure accountability for those who commit such acts of violence," Bragg said. While the family continues to pray for a full recovery, they are also demanding justice. The victim's daughter said she will be at every court date. Jiraud is due back on Sept. 17.
New York Times
01-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Can Gen Z's Nostalgia Save Chain Restaurants?
When you walk into a chain restaurant, time stands still. For some young people, that's the whole point. Ana Babic Rosario, a professor of marketing at the University of Denver, calls this 'emotional time travel.' With the country in an unstable economic time, potentially edging toward recession, those memories become more potent, Dr. Babic Rosario said. 'We tend to crave some of those nostalgic moments because we think they're more stable,' she said. 'That's how our mind tends to remember the past — more rosy than it really was.' That's true for Bea Benares, 27, who said she looked forward to meals at Outback Steakhouse and 'eating the bread and sitting down with my family.' 'Now with fast causal, you may not sit down and you go your separate ways afterward,' Ms. Benares said, referring to eateries catering to office workers, like Sweetgreen and Cava. 'It sounds kind of funny, but you lose a sense of community. It's kind of sad.' That missing sense of community may be why 10,000 people, mostly in their 20s, traveled to Randall's Island in New York last fall to attend Chain Fest, a food festival started by the 'Office' actor B.J. Novak that served 'exclusive gourmet versions' of classic chain restaurant dishes from Red Robin, Cracker Barrel and others. The festival's Los Angeles version had a 25,000-person wait list. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
