Central Park SummerStage Festival 2026 - August 19th, 2026

Before I start this off, I realize my concert write-ups have been rather lackluster about what actually happened during the show. Allow me to try to make up for that here.

I went to this year's SummerStage Festival in Central Park and it rocked! Simple Plan was headlining and Bowling for Soup and 3OH!3 were opening. I'm a big fan of Bowling for Soup and I know Simple Plan's biggest hits, but 3OH!3 was new to me. That being said, they all put on great performances.

Anyway, we got into the city about half an hour before the doors opened. We got a ride to Central Park and arrived just in time as they were starting to let people into the venue. The show didn't start until 18:00 so we walked around the venue, bought merch, and joined the mob of people huddled close to the stage. We got pretty close, which was great because Bowling for Soup was first up. They kicked ass and played all their biggest hits like "Girl All The Bad Guys Want" and "High School Never Ends." I liked their newer song "Getting Older Sucks (But Everybody's Doing It)" a lot too. Hearing "Today Is Gonna Be A Great Day" live and singing along with the crowd was pretty awesome. They covered "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus and then ended the show with their hit "1985." Great set.

Next up was 3OH!3 and they came on at 19:00. I hadn't heard of these guys before this show. They came out all in lime-green attire with hi-vis vests. Their stage performance was great and their songs were pretty catchy. The one that stuck out to me the most was their new single "MY FRIENDS" which I took a little clip of. They're more electronic and they used a lot of effects on their voice and instrumentation. It was pretty cool and kept the set feeling engaging.

Lastly, Simple Plan took the stage at 20:05. I went into their set only really knowing their biggest hits, but I definitely walked away with more favorites. One of those is "I'd Do Anything" which they opened their set with. They had really cool visuals playing in the background and the lighting was the best for their set. They played through a lot of their biggest hits like "Addicted" and "Welcome to My Life." Around halfway through their show, Pierre played the first two verses of "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)" solo on piano which was cool. Right after that, he hopped off the stage and made his way through the crowd singing as the band played "Can't Keep My Hands Off You." He was still some ways away from where we were standing but I did see him lit up by the stage lights.

Towards the end of their set, they played through a cool covers medley of "All Star," "Sk8er Boi," and "Mr. Brightside" which got the crowd hyped. Like Bowling for Soup, they also have a song they wrote for a cartoon show. In fact, when they played their "What's New Scooby-Doo?" song, they asked everyone in the crowd who was dressed up as Scooby-Doo to come up on stage with them. There ended up being like twenty-something people up there including a Shaggy and a Velma. Some of them passed by us in the crowd as they were making their way off stage. Also, slightly off topic, I got a pretty sick pic of Pierre jumping. :P

This was an awesome event. Great energy and performances, and the weather held out. Bowling for Soup rocked, I loved getting to see them. 3OH!3 was really fun to watch, and I'm definitley more of a Simple Plan fan now than I was for sure.

     

High School Never Ends



Ohio (Come Back to Texas)



MY FRIENDS



I'm Just a Kid