Governors Island has exploded in popularity since it opened five years ago as a seasonal park, with more than 275,000 visitors flocking to the island last year for its art festivals and exhibits, concerts, car-free biking and its country-like green spaces.

This summer, the 172-acre island is expected to draw even larger crowds with a new concert series of big-ticket performers on the South Island Field, the Governors Island Education and Preservation Corporation announced this week. So far, confirmed acts include genre-bending rapper/singer MIA (July 24) and electro-pop outfit Passion Pit (June 30). Smaller acts like She & Him, Yeasayer and Corinne Bailey Rae are slated for the stage at the Water Taxi Beach, which returns for its second year.

The sixth annual Vendy Awards, a popular food festival and awards ceremony featuring offerings by the city’s street vendors, comes to the island in September for the first time. The big barbecue festival Meatopia, scheduled for July, also makes its first appearance on Governors Island this summer.

“We have more programming than ever before coming to the island this year” said GIPEC’s marketing director, Elizabeth Rapuano. “There’s really room for everybody out there, and lots of different audiences.”

In addition to ticketed events, GIPEC and its more than 40 partner organizations have planned a plethora of free events and activities covering a wide gamut of interests, from archaeology and the arts to sports and the Civil War.

• Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s artist studios at Building 110 will house a full schedule of gallery exhibitions, open studio events, and open rehearsals by resident artists.

•A redesign of the free miniature golf course by FIGMENT artists. Opens June 11

•The Lincoln Center Festival, one of the world’s foremost performance festivals, stages two performances, including Peter Stein’s 12-hour marathon adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s “The Demons.” July 10-11, and 15-19.

•The National Park Service, the 119th New York Volunteers, The Gawd-Awful Mess and Battery G of the First Pennsylvania Light Artillery host a Civil War Weekend with family activities, living history demonstrations, music and other programs. Aug. 7 and 8.

•Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra will resurrect their Jazz-Age Lawn Party, a hit last year for fans of 1920s jazz music, dance and apparel. Aug. 28 and 29

For the kids, the Children’s Museum of the Arts will bring back its season-long Free Art Island Outpost day camp program, with new themes and projects each weekend. Volunteers will hand out free kites for Let’s Fly a Kite! Day on July 17, and “Amazing Spider-Man” writer Van Lente will be on hand Aug. 8 to talk about setting two issues of the iconic comic series on Governors Island. He will take audience questions about the web-slinging superhero, how comics are made, and anything else young fans might want to know.

The island will be open every weekend (Fri, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat-Sun, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.) beginning June 5. Ferries depart every 30 minutes from the Battery Maritime Building on South Street, east of the Staten Island Ferry terminal.

For more information, including a complete lisitng of 2010 events, visit www.govisland.com.