Festivals and Events
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Chinese New Year parade
Dragons and fireworks add even more life and colour to the irrepressible atmosphere in Chinatown.
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24-hour Marriage Marathon
50 couples get wed on top of the Empire State Building.
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St Patrick’s Day Parade
The Irish celebrate on Fifth Avenue as they have been doing for 200 years.
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Easter Parade
Fifth Avenue.
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9th Avenue International Food Festival
Ethnic foods from around the world.
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Metropolitan Opera concerts
Free open-air operas in Central Park. Bring a bottle of wine and a blanket!
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Independence Day celebrations
Try Macy’s for a spectacular fireworks display.
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New York International Fringe Festival
The Lower East Side showcases its talent with more than a thousand performances in comedy, dance and theatre.
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US Open
Top tennis stars at Flushing Meadow in Queen’s.
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Greenwich Village Hallowe’en Parade
The most fabulous street party of the year.
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New York City Marathon
35,000 entrants run through all five boroughs.
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Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The parade to see since 1924, where 2.5 million spectators line the streets and another 44 million tune in on the TV to watch the bands, balloons and floats march the 2.5 miles through the Manhattan streets. (The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, and is when most stores run the last big sales before Christmas)
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New Year’s Eve in Times Square
The place to be on the night of nights.
Click on to http://www.nycvisit.com for a comprehensive list of events.
Theatre, Cinema and Opera
Choose from the large, well-funded Broadway shows staged in ornate theatres or the offbeat Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway venues, where audiences are much smaller but productions are generally of high quality. Tickets for big hits on Broadway can cost anything from $50 to $220. Your travel agency or hotel should be able to help you buy tickets, or try the TKTS booth in Times Square at 47th St and Broadway, where same-day tickets are sold. But be prepared for a long wait. For Shakespeare enthusiasts, the free outdoor productions in Central Park are well worth a visit. When it comes to watching films, whether you’re a fan of the big, flashy Hollywood blockbuster or prefer an obscure foreign-language film with subtitles, New York has a movie-house to suit. In addition, two significant film festivals take place each year – the New York in October and the Tribeca in May. As far as music is concerned, this city has a much broader musical soundtrack than the endless round of hi-hop and rap pounding out of the radio stations. Jazz and blues can be heard in dedicated venues from Harlem down to Greenwich Village, the New York Philharmonic performs at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House is in full operatic mode from September to May.
Try Time Out New York http://www.timeout.com/newyork
Museums and Galleries
There are at least 85 museums and galleries in New York City, offering everything from a celebration of the city’s Latin culture to a museum of sex. The ‘must see’ is the Metropolitan Museum of Art which journeys from Ancient Egypt through the Renaissance to American masters. There’s also The Cloisters, a branch of the Met dedicated to the art and architecture of the European Middle Ages. www.metmuseum.org. Equally famous is the Guggenheim, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, where you can lose yourself in a world of modern art from Modigliani to Mondrian. www.guggenheim.org For something completely different, there’s the American Museum of the Moving Image – a glorious celebrations of motion pictures and television. www.movingimage.us
For Children
New York is a playground for kids. From sidewalk performers to Christmas lights to gigantic toy stores to Central Park and the Bronx Zoo, the city is an explosion of images that will delight children of all ages. Many museums offer reduced or free admission for children under 12 and, although New York’s more formal restaurants can be unwelcoming to kids, more laidback venues tend to have an ‘anything goes’ attitude. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan (www.cmom.org) will hold the attention of even the smallest. It’s very hands-on – there’s a room inspired by Dr Seuss and interactive cartoon characters such as Charlie Brown. The New York Aquarium on Coney Island includes an outside section where you can see dolphin shows and feeding time for the sharks, walruses and sea otters. www.Nyaquarium.com In Central Park, highlights for children include the carousel and the children’s zoo. And if you really want to spoil the little ones, take them to FAO Schwarz – 50,000 square feet of toys, fun and games. www.fao.com
