Sesame Workshop Announces Nationwide Road Trip to Celebrate Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary

Sesame Workshop today announced that the Sesame Street Muppets will embark on a nationwide road trip to celebrate the iconic program’s 50th anniversary. The 10-city trip will bring together community partners, celebrities, elected officials, and families to highlight the many ways that Sesame Street—and the nonprofit organization behind it—helps kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

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This Summer, Big Bird, Elmo, and Friends Will Travel the Country to Film Segments for Sesame Street’s 50th Season and Host Free Family Festivals in Ten Cities

(New York, NY – April 16, 2019) – Sesame Workshop today announced that the Sesame Street Muppets will embark on a nationwide road trip to celebrate the iconic program’s 50th anniversary. The 10-city trip will bring together community partners, celebrities, elected officials, and families to highlight the many ways that Sesame Street—and the nonprofit organization behind it—helps kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Stops on the road trip will unfold over three days, culminating in free Sesame Street festivals where families in each city can enjoy live performances and kid-friendly activities.  Sesame Street’s production crew will also travel to each city, filming a new segment that will capture what local kids love about their communities. The segment will be part of Sesame Street’s 50th season, premiering in November on HBO. While in town, Big Bird, Elmo, and friends will visit local landmarks and community organizations.

“This summer’s road trip will demonstrate the power of media to engage and teach – something Sesame Workshop has focused on from the very beginning,” said Steve Youngwood, Sesame Workshop’s President of Media and Education and Chief Operating Officer. “As we celebrate our decades of impact and look ahead to the next 50 years, Sesame Street’s timeless lessons remain the same: Everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, is equally deserving of respect, opportunity, and joy.”

Fans and families can celebrate Sesame Street at community festivals in the following cities:

  • New York, NY: Saturday, June 1st
  • Washington, DC: Saturday, June 8th
  • Pittsburgh, PA: Saturday, June 15th
  • Detroit, MI: Saturday, June 22nd
  • Chicago, IL: Saturday, June 29th
  • Dallas, TX: Saturday, July 6th
  • Kansas City, MO: Saturday, July 13th
  • Denver, CO: Saturday, July 20th
  • Seattle, WA: Saturday, July 27th
  • Los Angeles, CA: Saturday, August 3rd

Details about the events – including locations and participating local personalities – will be released throughout the spring.

The Sesame Street road trip is made possible in part by PNC, presenting sponsor of the festivals in each city as part of PNC Grow Up Great®, a $500 million initiative to help prepare children from birth to age five for success in school and life. PNC’s recent 15th anniversary celebration of PNC Grow Up Great featured its long-term relationship with Sesame Workshop. This includes their most recent collaboration, Growing Together: Ready for School & Beyond, which provides free, bilingual resources to help children, parents and caregivers prepare young children to learn, grow and thrive in school.

Thanks to media partners HBO and PBS KIDS, and additional support from Waze, LACTAID® Milk, Beaches® Resorts, and Pampers®, the road trip’s public festivals will include Sesame Street-themed activities like a giant maze, a treasure dig, a cookies-and-milk snack station, and photo opportunities, plus chances to win a Caribbean family vacation from Beaches® Resorts.

For more information, please visit sesamestreet.org/anniversary.

Sesame Street’s 50th anniversary celebration will also include:

  • #ThisIsMyStreet, a celebrity and fan-fueled social media campaign that encourages everyone to share their favorite Sesame Street memories online.
  • An expansion of the growing Sesame Street in Communities initiative to support vulnerable children and families, addressing issues like substance abuse and foster care.
  • A signature research report that will explore an important issue facing kids and families today.
  • The launch of a new local version of Sesame Street created for displaced Syrian families and their new neighbors in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, as part of a large-scale early childhood intervention in the region.
  • The 50th season of Sesame Street, kicking off in November with a star-studded primetime special that will include new takes on classic segments and visits from Sesame Street icons.
  • New collaborations across fashion, lifestyle, and themed entertainment for Sesame Street fans of all ages.
Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, the Count, and Abby run to the right through a the green field of a farm.

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, the pioneering television show that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with a mission to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We’re active in more than 150 countries, serving vulnerable children through a wide range of media, formal education, and philanthropically-funded social impact programs, each grounded in rigorous research and tailored to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve. For more information, please visit www.sesameworkshop.org.

Press Contacts

Elizabeth Fishman, Sesame Workshop
web.corpcomm@sesame.org

Jason Kaplan, SKDKnickerbocker
jkaplan@skdknick.com