Yarkon Park

Yarkon Park (Hebrew: פארק הירקון‎, Park HaYarkon) is a large park in Tel Aviv, Israel, with about sixteen million visits annually.[1] Named after the Yarkon River which flows through it, the park includes extensive lawns, sports facilities, botanical gardens, an aviary, a water park, two outdoor concert venues and lakes.

This article is about the public park near the mouth of the Yarkon River. For the Yarkon National Park at the springs of the Yarkon River, see Antipatris.

Yarkon Park
Type	Urban park
Location	Tel Aviv, Israel
Area	3.5 km²
Created	1973
Operated by	Tel Aviv municipality
Visitors	16 million
Status	Open all year

History

Planning of the park began in 1969. When it was opened to the public in 1973, it was called Ganei Yehoshua, honoring Yehoshua Rabinovich, the mayor of Tel Aviv between 1969–1974.[2]

Landmarks

Yarkon River

The park has six gardens: Gan HaBanim (Fallen Soldiers Memorial Garden), Gan Nifga'ei HaTeror (Terror Victims Memorial Garden), Gan HaSlaim (Rock Garden), Gan HaKaktusim (Cacti Garden), HaGan HaGazum (Trimmed Garden), and HaGan HaTropi (Tropical Garden).

The Rock Garden, one of the largest of its kind in the world, reflects Israel's geological diversity. In its 10-acre enclosure the rocks are interspersed with some 3,500 species of plants, including over six acres of cacti. The five-acre Tropical Garden has a wooden walkway shaded by palm trees leading to a small lake. The rainforest-like microclimate supports a large variety of orchids and vines.

The Yarkon River runs through the park and reaches the Mediterranean Sea at the park's western edge, then connects into the Tel Aviv Port, an entertainment and tourism center. Despite clean-up efforts in the last few years, the river is still polluted. Despite its polluted waters, on July 2011 Tel Aviv's mayor, Ron Huldai, jumped into the water and swam in the lake. Nevertheless, the region has retained its biodiversity. It is home to an abundance of insects, water fowl, golden jackals, porcupines and mongoose.[3]

Events

Paul McCartney concert in 2008

Many popular musical acts have played the park, including Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, Madonna, David Bowie, Carlos Santana, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Aerosmith, Metallica, U2, Depeche Mode, Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ugly Kid Joe, Linkin Park, Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Cocker, Morrissey, Eurythmics, Westlife, Five, Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams, Rihanna, Sia, OneRepublic, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Rod Stewart, Queen + Adam Lambert, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez.

American singer Britney Spears performed in the park on July 3, 2017 as part of her Britney: Live in Concert. It was attended by a crowd of 60,000 people.[4] Due to the concert, the Israeli Labor Party delayed their election for a new chairperson by a day. It was originally scheduled for July 3, the same day as Spears's concert, but party officials feared traffic jams and that party members would choose the concert over finding a polling station.[5]

The superstar Michael Jackson performed there, on September 19/21 1993 during his Dangerous World Tour attended by a crowd of 80,000 people in the first show and 100,000 people in the second show.

Italian opera house La Scala performed a free outdoor concert of Verdi's Requiem in the park as a part of Tel Aviv's 100th anniversary celebrations, attracting about 100,000 people.[6]

American singer Jennifer Lopez performed in the park as part of her It's My Party (tour) on August 1st, 2019. It was attended by a crowd of 57,000 people.

Concerts

List of concerts at Yarkon Park

Year	Date	Artist	Tour	Tickets	Gross
1985	May 1	Dire Straits	Brothers in Arms Tour	N/A	N/A
	May 2
1987	July 21	Tina Turner	Break Every Rule Tour	N/A	N/A
	July 22
	September 5	Bob Dylan	Temples in Flames Tour	N/A	N/A
1993	May 22	Guns N' Roses	Use Your Illusion Tour	40,000	N/A
	June 17	Elton John	The One Tour	N/A	N/A
	June 30	Metallica	Black Album Tour	N/A	N/A
	September 19	Michael Jackson	Dangerous World Tour	80,000	N/A
	September 21			100,000	N/A
	October 4	Madonna	The Girlie Show World Tour	80,000	N/A
1994	July 12	Aerosmith	Get a Grip Tour	N/A	N/A
1996	July 3	David Bowie	Outside Summer Festivals Tour	N/A	N/A
1997	September 30	U2	PopMart Tour	31,566	$1,809,388
2001	May 16	Westlife	Where Dreams Come True Tour	N/A	N/A
2008	September 25	Paul McCartney	Friendship First Concert	45,000[7]	N/A
2009	September 1	Madonna	Sticky & Sweet Tour	50,000	$14,656,063
	September 2			49,674
2010	September 28	Ozzy Osbourne	Scream World Tour	25,000	N/A
	November 15	Linkin Park	A Thousand Suns World Tour	45,000	N/A
2011	April 14	Justin Bieber	My World Tour	23,000[8]	N/A
2012	July 3	Guns N' Roses	Up Close and Personal Tour	N/A	N/A
	September 10	Red Hot Chili Peppers	I'm with You Tour	50,000[9]	N/A
2013	May 7	Depeche Mode	Delta Machine Tour	49,325	$1,752,446
	October 22	Rihanna	Diamonds World Tour	50,554	$6,121,631
2014	May 28	Justin Timberlake	The 20/20 Experience World Tour	44,634	$5,169,975
	June 4	The Rolling Stones	14 On Fire	48,167	$8,276,709
	September 13	Lady Gaga	ArtRave: The Artpop Ball	18,984	$1,786,945
2015	May 2	Robbie Williams	Let Me Entertain You Tour	40,000[10]	N/A
	May 28	OneRepublic	Native Tour	20,000[11]	N/A
	October 3	Bon Jovi	Bon Jovi Live!	56,000[12]	N/A
2016	September 12	Queen + Adam Lambert	2016 Summer Festival Tour	50,000[13]	N/A
	May 26	Elton John	Wonderful Crazy Night Tour	N/A	N/A
	August 11	Sia	Nostalgic for the Present Tour	39,000[14]	N/A
2017	May 3	Justin Bieber	Purpose World Tour	53,813[15]	$6,495,093
	May 17	Aerosmith	Aero-Vederci Baby! Tour	50,000[16]	N/A
	June 14	Rod Stewart	The Hits Tour	20,000[17]	N/A
	July 3	Britney Spears	Piece of Me Tour	60,000[18][19][20]	N/A
	July 15	Guns N' Roses	Not In This Lifetime... Tour	57,204	$6,761,681
	July 19	Radiohead	A Moon Shaped Pool Tour	48,011	$6,221,906
2018	May 26	Enrique Iglesias	Enrique Iglesias Live	41,365	$2,946,286
	June 28	Maluma	Fame Tour	—	—
2019	July 25	Bon Jovi	This House Is Not for Sale Tour	50,000	—
	August 1	Jennifer Lopez	It's My Party	57,000[21]	—

See also

• Biodiversity in Israel
• List of national parks and nature reserves of Israel
• Tourism in Israel
• National Sport Center – Tel Aviv

References

1. Park Hayarkon – the Central Park of Tel Aviv
2. Changing pollution into paradise
3. At Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park, they're sweating the small stuff
4. News, All-Noise. "Watch Britney Spears Performing In Tel Aviv for 60K Crowd".
5. "Oops! Britney Spears gig forces Israeli Labour party to delay leadership contest". The Guardian. 5 April 2017.
6. "Opera Celebrates Tel Aviv's centennial". Entertainment News. 17 July 2009.
7. News, The Independent. "First Night: Sir Paul McCartney, Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv".
8. News, Israel National News. "Justin Bieber: Very excited to visit Israel for the second time".
9. News, The Time of Israel. "Red Hot Chili Peppers give it away to 50,000 at Tel Aviv show".
10. News, The Times of Israel. "40,000 Israelis let pop star Robbie Williams entertain them".
11. News, Ynews Culture. "Is One Republic returning to Israel?".
12. News. "Empathetic Jon Bon Jovi dedicates song 'We Don't Run' to Israelfirst=The Time of Israel".
13. News, Ynetnews. "Queen rocks it out in Tel Aviv".
14. News, Haaretz. "Sia's Electronic Rain Beautifully Pierces Tel Aviv's Humidity".
15. News, Pollstar. "Top 100 Worldwide Concert Grosses" (PDF).
16. News, ISRAEL21c. "Steven Tyler tours Israel ahead of farewell tour in TLV".
17. News, Ynetnews. "Rod Stewart duets with Israeli singer Rita in Tel Aviv concert".
18. News, All-Noise. "Watch Britney Spears Performing In Tel Aviv for 60K Crowd".
19. News, Direct Lyrics. "Massive: Britney Spears Performs For 60K Crowd In Tel Aviv, Israel".
20. News, Times of Israel. "Britney Spears performs for 55,000 fans in Israel".
21. "J-Lo celebrates 50 with an adoring, dancing crowd in Tel Aviv". The Times of Israel. August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.

External links

• Yarkon National Park at the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority
• Yarkon Park