This coming Saturday, July 30th, NYC’s Lincoln Center will host “The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed” as part of their Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Festival. The free event, named after Lou Reed‘s 1979 album The Bells, was put together by his Grammy-winning longtime producing partner and current Saturday Night Live music producer Hal Willner and Reed’s widow, artist Laurie Anderson, at the last minute, with the whole show coming together over the course of this past week. 

In an interview with The Guardian released today, Willner explained, “There was a blank page, six days before [the show]. It’s an exciting thing because you get these moments that you probably wouldn’t get if something was rehearsed to death. The combination with something that’s kind of made up on the spot, I find that to be really exciting…It’s going to be an amazing day. It’s a gigantic puzzle, with all the new things we’re going to add to the mix. People just hear about it and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in town, can I play?’ We’ll never say no to that.”

Anderson agreed with Willner’s sentiment of excitement at the loosely planned nature of the event, saying, “With these one-off things, it’s just very fluid. We’ll never really rehearse it. We’ll get a bunch of people together, and a collection of songs, and try to present them. This is absolutely one of a kind.” 

The event will begin and end with all-star tribute collaborations. The morning show will be a rock n’ roll set featuring Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, fronted by David Johansen, Lenny Kaye, Joan As Police Woman, JG Thirlwell, Jon Spencer and the Bush Tetras. The evening set will be a presentation of Reed’s love songs, featuring Laurie Anderson, Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Anohni, Garland Jeffreys, Mark Kozelek, and more surprise guests. The day will also feature Tai Chi lessons and lectures from Master Ren Guang Yi, Reed’s old teacher, afternoon film screenings, lyric readings, and a five-hour dronescape installation, shaped by the sound of Reed’s guitars and amplifiers in a feedback loop.

For more information and the day’s the full schedule, click here.Â