MTA Broadway Rhythm Wraps Up in Midtown, NYC: Free Lunchtime Music on Broadway Plazas

Broadway Rhythm, a free lunchtime concert series on the Broadway plazas in Midtown Manhattan, started on June 9, 2026 and runs through October 22. It is organized by the Garment District Alliance, the business improvement group for the neighborhood, and it features performers from MTA Music Under New York, the program run by MTA Arts & Design that places musicians in subway stations. For this series, they play above ground instead.

Performances take place every Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets. Admission is free, and the timing is aimed at the lunch hour, so you can eat while the music plays.

The lineup on the official schedule is broad. It includes the brass group Dingonek Street Band (June 9), Diverse Concert Artists (June 11), the Robert Anderson Jazz Band (June 23), Underground Horns (July 14), Triad Brass (July 30) and The Opera Collective (September 15). Singer-songwriters with guitars appear throughout the calendar, and the dance act Azusa SHESHE Dance has a slot in August.

The final stretch in October brought Clovers Curfew (October 6), Inti and the Moon (October 8), Cupid's Nemesis (October 13), Zuique (October 15) and Chanese Elifé (October 20). On October 22, the closing date of the run, the listed act is Galdort Gumbo & the Righteous Cats, a five-piece band.

Time Out New York reported in May that the MTA was presenting more than 50 free outdoor performances across Midtown this summer, with lunchtime concerts on Broadway plazas in Times Square and the Garment District continuing through October. For visitors, the series is a chance to hear the kind of musicians you might pass on a subway platform, performing in a plaza setting with a proper set.