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What You Should Do This Summer If Cash Is Scarce

If your funds are short, you're probably sticking around Brooklyn this summer. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Even in the midst of a budget crunch, New York still finds a way to serve up free concerts and usually a few surprises.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn Bridge Park is leading the charge, offering freebies that will make you happy you're staying in town:

• Free WiFi.
• Free kayaking and community rowing. You don't need reservations; just check the schedule in advance.
• Movies with a View, the park's outdoor film series, sponsored by Syfy, kicks off the season on July 8 with Annie Hall. DJ Ursula 1000 is spinning before the film!

Jelly Pool Party Concert Series Has a New Home

The Jelly Pool Party concert series will be in its new location, along the Williamsburg Waterfront (between North 8th and North 9th streets) this summer. Its old home, McCarren Park Pool, is closed for renovations that will turn it back into a public pool. Jelly will need to find a new home again next year, according to Gothamist, so this may be the only summer with a series of sunscreen-mandatory events at the Williamsburg waterfront.

Sundays at Sunny's

Eccentric, semi-accessible Red Hook is a hotbed for underground arts, including the literary arts. Start exploring them at Sunny's, on Conover and Beard streets. At 3 p.m. on the first Sunday of every month, "the best little bar in Brooklyn" hosts a Brooklyn authors reading series. Novelists, journalists and readers join author Gabriel Cohen as he fills everyone up on free coffee, Italian pastries and literature for a suggested donation of $4.

Celebrate Brooklyn, at the Prospect Park Bandshell

This outdoor music and dance series cycles through just about every kind of music fit to be played in public. Most concerts start at 7:30 p.m., and entry usually starts an hour before that. Get there really early if you want a seat (enter from Prospect Park West and 9th Street), but lots of people just bring a picnic blanket and spread out on the grass. Admission for most shows is free, with a suggested donation of $3. The opening-night act is Norah Jones. She starts at 8 p.m. on June 9.