Alicia Keys attends the Alicia Keys_ Girl From Hell's Kitchen Premiere during the 2026 Tribeca Festival_Photo by Jamie McCarthy_Getty Images for Tribeca Festival.jpg

 

Tribeca Festival Closes Its 25th Anniversary With Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Alicia Keys and a Very New York Finale

The 25th anniversary edition of the Tribeca Festival did not so much close as it gathered the city into one last, glittering chorus.

On Saturday, June 13, the festival’s closing night unfolded across Lower Manhattan and Chelsea with the kind of improbable cultural collision that Tribeca has long specialized in: Bruce Springsteen being honored by Bono, Alicia Keys turning a documentary premiere into a hometown celebration, Travis Barker reflecting on survival and sound, and Patti Smith appearing exactly where one would hope Patti Smith might appear — onstage, in the mix, part of the evening’s emotional architecture.

At the OKX Theater at BMCC, Springsteen received Tribeca Festival’s annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award, presented by Bono. It was a fittingly symbolic pairing: two stadium-sized artists whose public lives have long extended beyond performance and into activism. Robert De Niro, Tribeca’s co-founder, was in attendance, along with Jane Rosenthal, Patti Smith, Rosanna Arquette and Rebecca Glashow.

The evening’s most memorable moment came when Springsteen, Bono and Smith took the stage for a special performance — less a festival interlude than a reminder of the old New York idea that art, politics and friendship can still occupy the same room without apology.

The theater later shifted from Jersey grit to Hell’s Kitchen polish for the closing-night world premiere of Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell’s Kitchen, a documentary inspired by Keys’s life and artistic rise. Keys attended alongside Cole Cook, Jamie Hector, Terria Joseph, Alex Larpin, Ana Lara, Jonna McLaughlin, One9, Brian Satz, and Ben Vereen.

If the screening offered reflection, the after-party supplied release. Keys performed an hourlong set at the festival’s closing-night celebration, joined by surprise guest Nas. The night culminated, inevitably and correctly, with “Empire State of Mind,” a song that has become less a hit than a civic reflex. In a festival born downtown and shaped by New York’s post-9/11 creative resilience, the choice felt almost too perfect — and then, because this was Alicia Keys, completely earned.

Elsewhere, the closing-day programming suggested the breadth of what Tribeca has become over 25 years: part film festival, part ideas summit, part television showcase, part downtown salon with better lighting.

At SVA Theatre, Vulture Festival brought Jason Bateman for a live edition of the Good One podcast, while Elisabeth Moss appeared in connection with The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, alongside Lucy Halliday and Chase Infiniti. The venue also hosted a Tribeca TV event for Survival of the Thickest, with Michelle Buteau, Amber Ruffin, Amy Aniobi, Bevy Smith, Peppermint, Dan Ahdoot, Dan Amboyer, Nore Davis, Rotimi Paul, Brian Marc, Liza Treyger, Wouri Vice, Allan K. Washington and Marouane Zotti.

The premiere of Young Washington brought Kelsey Grammer, William Franklyn-Miller, Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn, Adam Abel and Ryan Begay, while the world premiere of Guggi welcomed the acclaimed artist Guggi, Bono, Ali Hewson, Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Howie B and others for a portrait of creativity with a distinctly Irish orbit.

Spring Studios, the festival’s official hub, carried much of the day’s conversational energy. The Storytelling Summit moved through panels on worldbuilding, access, design and micro-content, with participants including Anil Glendinning, Lucas Rizzotto, Rafal Zaremba, Natallie Chavesta, Zoey Martinson, Antoinette Miller, Carmelyn P. Malalis, Dr. Regina Davis Moss, Praise Odigie Paige and Prairie Rose Seminole.

Este Haim appeared in conversation with filmmaker Will Gluck, adding a music-meets-movies note to a day already thick with cross-disciplinary overlap. Tribeca TV also leaned into fandom with X-Men ’97, drawing voice talent and creatives including Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, Jake Castorena, Brad Winderbaum, Zehra Fazal, Courtenay Taylor, JP Karliak and Carolina Ravassa.

The world premiere of Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear brought Barker to Spring Studios for a documentary look at his life, career and recovery. Attendees included Landon Barker, Darryl McDaniels, Alexa Ray Joel, Ayesha Nadarajah, Lexi Wood, King Carl X and members of the filmmaking team.

Fashion had its own sharp corner of the day with Tribeca’s Fierce Fashion shorts program, which included Oscar de la Renta: A Life Well Lived, Couture to the Max and Farm to Fashion. The screenings drew figures including Fern Mallis, Kelly Cutrone, Donna Karan, Irina Pantaeva, Melissa Haizlip, Dori Berinstein and Mimi Prober.

The festival also extended outdoors with The Short History of the Long Road, attended by Kishori Rajan, Ani Simon-Kennedy and Cailin Yatsko.

By the end of the night, Tribeca’s 25th anniversary had made its closing argument clearly. It remains a festival comfortable with contradiction: intimate and celebrity-heavy, local and international, commercial and idiosyncratic, nostalgic and still restlessly chasing what comes next.