Roosevelt Island's Happy Tree Lighting for 2019

Roosevelt Island’s Happy, Musical

Tree Lighting 2019

RIOC Organizes a Community Celebration

Roosevelt Island’ Tree Lighting for 2019, blessed with mild weather and superbly organized, lit up Friday night. Around 500 crowded the Rivercross Lawn for a holiday festival.

Roosevelt Island Tree Lighting 2019 starts with caroling.

A little after six, the cast from Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance’s A Christmas Carol: The Musical arrived at the subway in costume. But an instant obstacle forced a change in plans.

Giving everyone another reason to hate the Midtown Access tunnel project, it roared with cement mixing, right across the street. In the spirit of “The show must go on,” the cast quickly regrouped inside the station, shutting out most of the racket.

And what the hell? The acoustics were better anyway…

Mel Tormé owns The Christmas Song, but MST&DA’s cast offered a great rental.

The cast from A Christmas Carol: The Musical caroled in costume to promote their live show, set to open next week. Details & Tickets here.

Before moving on to the Tree Lighting Ceremony, where they did songs from the show, they sang familiar holiday favorites.

“Deck The Halls…”

Meanwhile, up the street…

The Roosevelt Island Tree Lighting 2019 festival was taking shape. Fundraising vendors offered everything from Christmas cookies to books…

*Cookies from the café @ Cornell Tech promised joy for every sweet tooth.*

*R. I. Navigators cooked marshmallows with a smile.*

*Roosevelt Island’s Girl Scout Troop pledged fidelity and served goodies.*

Don”t miss the next story…

*The Roosevelt Island Branch of the New York Public Library came with books and high spirits. But they protested that their logo was not visible from this angle…*

And so, we took another shot to keep the message straight. Our library started as a gift from community pioneers. Started in a small room in Westview, it was later adopted by the city’s system.