First Night Summer Beat was created in June of 2000 to extend the year round outreach component of the First Night Neighborhood Network.  Continuing with First Night’s mission of “unifying the community through creativity, imagination and participation,” the goal of Summer Beat is to maintain the presence of artists working with children in the neighborhoods of Boston to conduct workshop that lead to full scale events.

The First Night Summer Beat workshops were developed with the elements of drumming and dance. First Night commissions four principle artists to conduct workshops with children for an intensive week long workshop series.