Renowned Israeli singer Omer Adam performed at Steppingstone Park Sunday as the Great Neck Park District’s mystery artist in the series, but the concert sparked backlash over the exclusivity of the concert despite its community-unifying origins.
“As long as we’ve had these wonderful summer series of concerts, they’ve always been free,” Great Neck resident Karen Bardash said.
Nearly 7,000 people attended the concert for Adam, an Israeli singer whose music is described as a blending of eastern Mizrahi music and Western Pop instrumentation. He is renowned as one of the most famous singers from Israel.
While Adam was born in North Carolina, he was born into an Israeli family and was raised in Israel from the age of 3.
Adam found notoriety in his singing career when he competed on Kokhav Nolad Hebrew, a singing competition. He was forced to leave the competition when it was revealed he was five months too young to compete.
The concert was originally scheduled for 9 p.m. but was moved up to 4 p.m. due to the rain forecast. Park District residents were notified via email about the change.
The concert doors opened at 1:30 p.m., with residents able to set up a spot to enjoy the show hours before it began.
The venue was heavily policed, with Kings Point and Nassau County police officers patrolling the concert alongside the park district’s hired private security team.
Efforts to solicit comment from the Great Neck Park District were unavailing.
Bardash, a Great Neck resident of more than six decades, said she has observed the concerts grow in recent years with bigger names performing.
With this came changes, she said, like the inclusion of a VIP section that serves alcohol while it is banned in the rest of the park and some concerts costing a ticket fee.
Bardash said she opposed the added VIP section because it separated the community during these concerts, which typically brought them together.
Sunday’s concert was also limited to residents only. The park district typically permits a resident to bring up to two guests to concerts.
A ticket to attend the Adam concert was $18, but with a $5 handling fee amounted to $23 in total, Bardash said.
Bardash took issue with the Adam concert barring guests from attending, requiring a paid ticket and setting up the VIP section. She called it a breaking of precedent in the park district’s traditional free Sunday concert offerings.
“I don’t have a problem with having a special concert with a fee if it’s on any other night but it’s not on a night that were traditionally free concerts,” Bardash said.
Bardash said the concert issue was discussed in Facebook groups, but that many of those who expressed issues with it were labeled as anti-semitic or anti-zionist. She said this was not the case, as she and many others did not take issue with the Israeli performer.
“So anybody that critiqued it was being really put down as old, out of touch, antisemitic, anti-zionist, and that was not my intention,” Bardash said.
Bardash said she sent a letter with her concerns to the park district, but said she has not received a response.
