The crowd at Celebrate Brooklyn.

Summer doesn’t really begin in Brooklyn until a musical icon soothingly rocks throngs of Brooklyn’s gentrifiers and natives in the Prospect Park bandshell. This year was Jimmy Cliff’s turn.

“I look forward to most concerts and I’m certainly looking forward to tonight,” said Peter Aschkenasy, former mayor John Lindsay’s deputy parks commissioner and BRIC Arts’s vice chairman. “The fact that Cliff is still performing is pretty amazing. His hit song was 40 years ago. ‘The Harder They Come.’”

Mr. Aschkenasy and Celebrate Brooklyn executive director Jack Walsh were being honored at the concert’s annual gala on Tuesday night, where the borough’s royalty and BRIC Arts board members mingled before the show.

The Observer spotted four different men in seersucker suits, which seemed like a low number even after a few early evening showers.

Jane and David Walentas of Two Trees Development and Douglas Steiner of Steiner Studios were on the bill, as were playwrights Lynn Nottage and David Lindsay-Abaire, who received a Pulitzer for his drama, “Rabbit Hole” in 2007.

Mr. Lindsay-Abaire told The Observer his favorite plays so far this year are Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities” and Nicky Silver’s “The Lyons.” Now he’s catching up on summer blockbusters.

“I can’t wait for Prometheus,” he said. “I just saw The Avengers. That was a great film.”

His favorite character? The Hulk.

“I was most pleased the Black Widow wasn’t lame. She doesn’t have any superpowers and Scarlett Johansson kicked ass, but of course Hulk is the best.”

Monsignor Kieran Harrington, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio’s right hand man, wanted to talk mayoral politics. Mr. Harrington was drinking a glass of red wine that, as far as we could tell, did not contain the blood of Christ.

“Billy Thompson ran pretty strong last time around at time when there was a lot of money going around,” he said. “I think it’s Billy’s to lose, I’m not sure Christine Quinn is the favorite right now, but I can see an anti-Bloomberg campaign developing. There are not a lot of people who are thrilled about bike lanes and soft drinks.”

At 6:45 pm, Celebrate Brooklyn staff asked everyone to take their seats for dinner and began the program honoring Mr. Aschkenasy and Mr. Walsh.

The Observer sat next to the Village Voice’s Maura Johnston who was there to review the show. We both passed on the fish, advice Ms. Johnston dispensed after her repeated viewings of the 1980 classic screwball comedy, Airplane!

Mr. Walsh brought out the regulars, who have been coming to Prospect Park in the three decades he has put together the concert series.

This year, he’s looking forward to Wilco, who will be performing in the bandshell on July 23 and 24.

“I worked really hard on Wilco—my favorite album is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” he said. “We tweeted at him and they said, ‘sure!’”

Mr. Aschkenasy’s presence summoned New York’s political elite, including deputy mayor Patti Harris, who noted that he was her physical education teacher some 40 years ago.

Both men received proclamations from Borough President Marty Markowitz, who also handed out some brand new Brooklyn Nets swag signed by Jay-Z.

“There was a time when these shows were not ordinary for this park,” said Mr. Markowitz. “Now, thanks to Celebrate Brooklyn, there’s a reason why GQ magazine declared that Brooklyn is the coolest city in the planet!”

Mr. Aschkenasy got his start as a Lindsay man, but cultivated relationships with Ed Koch and mayoral candidate Ruth Messinger, whom he advised during her ill-fated 1996 campaign against Rudy Giuliani.

“Peter was with her every day of the campaign, he drove her all over the city,” said Wayne Barrett, the longtime conscience of the Village Voice who is now at Tina Brown’s Daily Beast.

Barrett had a good seat for the gala. His elbow practically rested on the makeshift stage.

We asked Mr. Barrett about Mr. Aschkenasy, who was recently in a car accident. He propped himself up with two canes, which did not look comfortable.

“He had 14 surgeries, the man is as tough as nails,” Mr. Barrett said. “A guy tried to mug him looking like that, and he fought him off! He didn’t give him any money!”
Jimmy Cliff took the stage just before 8:30 pm, belting out “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Ruby Soho (Destination Unknown)” and “Wild World.”

Mr. Walsh beamed.

“The best part of Celebrate Brooklyn is the audience,” he said. “Seeing all those people go home happy, engaged and enlightened.”

And they can see clearly now that the rain is gone.