NYC events in September 2025

Before you bid summer adieu, go out with a bang on Labor Day. Whether you want ideas for cool out-of-town spots or just want a staycation, we’ve listed all the best events and other unmissabale things to do, including ways to have the best summer ever before Labor Day weekend 2025.

The annual West Indian Day Parade draws close to two million people to Crown Heights in Brooklyn each year. During the carnival, steel-pan and calypso bands in elaborate costumes march down Eastern Parkway, and vendors sell homestyle island grub along the route.

The West Indian Day Parade is Monday, September 1, 2025 (Labor Day) starting at 10am.

We could all use a big plate of pasta chased with a cannoli right about now. The Feast of San Gennaro is here to meet those needs with its annual festival featuring parades, live music and of course, glorious foods.

Festivities run from September 11-21, 2025 in Little Italy. Activities include the Blessing of the Stands, the Grand Procession Procession, and a Solemn High Mass celebrating the patron Saint of Naples. Here's the full events calendar.

Central Park's newly renovated Delacorte Theater is back in business for Shakespeare in the Park's free performances of Twelfth Night. The renovation focused on improving accessibility and modernizing the space for artists and audiences. 

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Peter Dinklage, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sandra Oh will perform in this year's shows, which run through September 14. Tickets are free, but you'll have to wait in line; here's how to get them.

Vincent van Gogh had a knack for making flowers seem to spring to life from his canvases. Now, his lilies, sunflowers, trees and more have truly come to life at New York Botanical Garden's newest exhibit. Titled "Van Gogh's Flowers," the massive exhibition transforms the garden's 250 acres into a kaleidoscopic celebration of the artist's lifelong passion for nature.

This isn’t just a flower show. The exhibition brings Van Gogh’s expressive canvases off the wall and into the wild, pairing his iconic works with contemporary interpretations and living installations. At the heart of the experience is a towering field of real and sculptural sunflowers designed by French artist Cyril Lancelin, an immersive environment where guests can wander through Van Gogh’s signature motif on a monumental scale. Other installations feature reflecting pools, sculptures and playful programming. 

See it in The Bronx through October 26, 2025.

Since its humble beginnings at D.C.’s Union Market, All Things Go Music Festival has become one of the most anticipated events of late New York City summers. With lineups that predominantly feature queer artists, the event stands sturdy in its values. This year, the festival will return to Forest Hills Stadium and will take place from September 26 through September 28. See artists like Lucy Dacus, DJO, DOECHII, Remi Wolf, Clairo and The Marias, among many others.

Tickets start at $89 for general admission.

As New York City's largest free literary festival, this annual celebration brings together hundreds of spectacular writers from across the globe for more than a week of talks and shopping to satisfy the borough's brainiacs. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Activities run September 14-22 with writers in a variety of genres: international and local, for adult and young readers, working in fiction and nonfiction, poetry, prose, and graphic storytelling. Events are free, but you’ll definitely want to bring some money to buy some new books to take home. 

While activities run for the entirety of the nine-day celebration, the centerpiece festival day on Sunday, September 21, takes place in the parks and plazas surrounding Downtown Brooklyn’s Borough Hall and other venues. Multiple stages will overflow with conversation as authors come together to converse, read and sign books throughout the day. Festival Day also stages the largest book market in the Northeast with more than 250 publishers, offering readers the possibility to discover new authors, independent publishers and literary organizations.

Here's the full schedule.

Carving a jack-o'-lantern may be a time-honored American tradition for many, but nobody—and we mean nobody—does pumpkin carving quite like Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.

Every fall, pumpkins aplenty decorate this festive, family-friendly attraction. This year promises thousands of intricately carved jack-o'-lanterns in mesmerizing displays, plus dazzling new experiences.

Blaze: Hudson Valley runs at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County from September 12 through November 16. Get tickets here.

The annual Ferragosto Festival is returning once again to the Bronx Little Italy on Sunday, September 7, with delicious food and live entertainment. 

Going back centuries, the Ferragosto tradition recognizes the end of the harvest season and enjoying the fruits of those labors. Over 25 years ago, the merchants of Arthur Avenue and East 187th Street decided to bring the Italian celebration to the Bronx. Since then, the festival continues to grow every year, attracting thousands of guests, many who travel a long way to make it part of their family tradition.

Bronx Little Italy is home to numerous family-owned small businesses, many still owned and operated by the same families that founded them over a century ago. Visitors to the festival can enjoy the small-town charm, authenticity and preservation of Italian culture. 

The Ferragosto Festival goes from 12pm-6pm rain or shine on Arthur Avenue between East 187th Street and Crescent Avenue. The stage featuring live entertainment is located on East 186th Street between Arthur Avenue and Hughes Avenue. The festivities are hosted by the Belmont Business Improvement District.

The pun, that most democratic of jokes: At its best, it’s sublimely satisfying to the reptilian part of our brains that loves easy comedy. At its worst, it produces a groan so gut-deep, it’s almost as good as a belly laugh. The form is mined for all it’s worth at this monthly tournament, hosted by Rodney Dangerfield impersonator Fred Firestone and his daughter, Jo.

A fixture on the NYC comedy landscape for more than a decade, this show at Littlefield in Brooklyn is like a rap battle, only much nerdier. Hear pun pros face-off in the All-Star Tournament of Pun Champions where punsters deliver two-minute pun-stand-up routines, after only two minutes of preparation.

Here's the lineup of 2025 shows: September 3 and October 29. 

A dearly departed piece of New York’s punk past is being resurrected for one night only this fall. CBGB—the iconic East Village music club that helped kickstart the careers of many notable punk rock and new wave bands, including Ramones, Blondie, Television, Talking Heads, Dead Boys and Patti Smith Group, among others—will be popping up once again as CBGB Festival on September 27 at Under the K Bridge Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. (The original CBGB shuttered for good in 2006 at 315 Bowery.)

The lineup features 21 bands, including Iggy Pop, Jack White, The Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr, Lunachicks, Marky Ramone, The Damned, Melvins, The Linda Lindas, Destroy Boys, Angel Du$t, Scowl, Pinkshift, Teen Mortgage, YHWH Nailgun and Lip Critic. 

Tickets cost between $73-$149 at CBGBFEST.COM

Most people associate the sari with its South Asian origin. IN a new exhibit, the New York Historical adds another layer to the garment's story by unearthing how the sari—and those who wear it—made New York City a home. "The New York Sari: A Journey Through Tradition, Fashion, and Identity" opens September 12 and runs through April 2026.

This exhibition traces the path of the sari from the Indian subcontinent to NYC, going from exotic object of trade to a tradition embraced by many communities. The sari holds many different identities; whether it be within consumer empires, dance and performance or explorations of gender and identity, museum officials explained. 

Hitting a Yankees game couldn’t be more quintessentially New York. The Major League Baseball team, which won the World Series in 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009, made it to the World Series again in 2024! To date, the Yankees have won 27 World Series in 42 appearances, the most in the MLB in addition to major North American professional sports leagues. Through 2024, their all-time regular season winning percentage is .569 (a 10,778 – 8,148 record)—the best of any team in MLB history.

Grab your tickets now to see NYC in action!

Forget the 14-hour flight from NYC to Tokyo, you can now discover the tastes of Japan with just a short subway ride to JAPAN Fes. The massive annual food festival just announced its 2025 dates, and the schedule is packed with events.

The organization is hosting nearly 30 outdoor events in NYC this year. What used to be just a summertime festival is now a year-round celebration across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Event organizers say it's the largest Japanese food festival in the world, attracting 300,000 visitors and featuring 1,000 vendors every year.

Here's the lineup for September: September 6 on the Upper East Side; September 13 in Chelsea; September 20 on the Upper West Side.

The only thing better than the Bronx Zoo is the Bronx Zoo at night. The famed zoo's annual family-friendly celebration, Harvest Glow, is back and at its best. 

Every Thursday-Sunday from September 25 until October 31, families are invited to explore this immersive jack-o'-lantern trail with its own spin: the 5,000 pumpkins are animal themed, of course! Senses will be heightened as you explore "creatures of the darkness" through the use of music, special effects and dramatic lighting to make sure that you really feel the spookiness. 

And if that wasn't enough, visitors will have the opportunity live in the Mesozeric Era while walking amongst over 60 animatronic dinosaurs and pterosaurs at the event's Dinosaur Safari. Paired with the darkness, this prehistoric adventure is not to be missed.

Also expect pumpkin carving demos, games, face panting and tons of photo opps.

Summer might be coming to a close, but Electric Brew at the Bronx Brewery is prolonging the feeling. On September 6, this collaborative dance/music festival from the founders of Bronx Summer Jam is closing the summer with a bang.

Launched in 2022, Bronx Summer Jam was the first major music initiative created by Fernando Michael of The Fox & King and DJ Mike Nickerson of Sounds & Sirens with a goal to produce a free annual music festival for all ages within The Bronx.

This latest festival is a full day of EDM, house, soca and perreo music to showcase a wide variety of genres and artists. Feel free to stay for the duration of the festival (2-11pm) as you'll be surrounded by anything you'd need in one place: food, local vendors, Latin flare, boiler room beats and ice-cold beers.

Tickets are available now and start at $23.

The pups are going on parade, as the 4th Annual Rockaway Dog Parade returns on Sunday, September 7. This fun afternoon for dog lovers features creative costumes and community spirit in support of ARF-ARF (Allied Rockaway Foundation for Animal Recreation and Fitness). 

Organized by Dana Humphrey, "The Pet Lady," the event invites dogs of all sizes, breeds and personalities to strut their stuff along the scenic Rockaway boardwalk. 

Parade highlights include a costume contest (this year's theme is Rockstars), music and entertainment for the whole family, adoptable dogs looking for their forever home, raffles and giveaways supporting ARF-ARF (and the chance to win prizes), plus local treats from vendors—both for you and your pet. 

"This parade is a celebration of our love for animals and more importantly, it supports ARF-ARF's mission to help people and pets live more active lives," Humphrey said in a statement. 

The festivities begin at 2pm at Shorefront Dog Run (Shorefront Parkway and Beach 90th Street). Tickets are $5 per dog to benefit ARF-ARF. Participants are encouraged to register in advance, but day-of sign-ups will be available. 

Feeling unsettled by this summer's heatwaves and abnormal rainstroms? You're going to want to bookmark the The Climate Film Festival, which will return during Climate Week NYC from September 19 to 22. 

The Climate Film Festival is New York's leading showcase for boundary-pushing climate storytelling, with powerful messages that explore the narrative to shape climate action. The festival will also host a live pitch competition, sessions on screenwriting, funding and distribution, measuring impact and sustainable filmmaking practices, as well as networking opportunities across sectors. This year's festival features 50 films and 31 premieres along with a full slate of screenings, interactive programs and public conversations and partner activations. 

Highlights for the weekend include the opening night kick-off on Friday with a screening of the 25th anniversary new 4k remaster of Erin Brockovich with a conversation to follow. On Saturday and Sunday, finalist screenings will be shown across 18 programs at Regal Essex Crossing and the public and industry programs will be taking place at Essex Market.

The weekend concludes with Awards Night, where winners will be selected by a panel of leaders in film, journalism, climate justice and creative industries. The weekend will also conclude with a NYC premiere of Trade Secret—a global exposé of the legal trade in polar bear pelts and the institutions complicit in it. 

Click here for the full schedule and ticketing; the progam is supported by media partner The Guardian. 

Grammy Award-winning rock icon Melissa Etheridge will be heading back to New York City this September to play Radio City Music Hall alongside legendary folk duo, the Indigo Girls. 

As part of their 2025 co-headlining "Yes We Are" tour, the musicians will play on stage together on September 10 to give fans a night filled with community, chart-toppping fan favorites and a lot of fun. Expect to hear hits like "I'm The Only One," "Come To My Window," "Bring Me Some Water" and many more.

Also get ready for Melissa's latest original "Burning Woman" from her recent 2024 live album and Paramount+ docuseries, Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken, which premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival. 

Tickets for the NYC show are currently on sale. Grab yours now here. 

The U.S. Open—New York’s exhilarating summer sports event—is one of the most exciting things to do in Queens. It returns this month with plenty of exciting activities for fans. The main draw runs from August 24–September 7. 

Tickets to the U.S. Open are now on sale here.

The national tour of Mamma Mia! has just set up camp (or at least kitsch) at the Winter Garden Theatre, where the show’s original production ran for 14 years. 

Mamma Mia! is constructed around nearly two dozen 1970s Europop bops by the Swedish megagroup ABBA, including “Dancing Queen,” “Super Trouper” and “Take a Chance on Me”: all the ABBA songs you love plus a few others you probably don’t have strong feelings about one way or the other. 

Unlike most of the jukebox musicals that have tried to replicate its formula, Mamma Mia! keeps its balance: It draws you just enough in while maintaining an amused sense of itself. It never loses sight of what it offers at its core: the joy of vicarious karaoke. 

For far too long people have looked down upon the unicycle, ridiculing riders for how silly they look perched up high above a single wheel. It’s time that one-wheel lovers unite and take over the streets of New York! That’s just what the NYC Unicycle Festival is planning to do over Labor Day weekend.

To kick things off on Thursday, August 28, unicyclists will meet up in Battery Park and cruise up the West Side to Central Park. The next day, on Friday, August 29, Brooklyn Unicycle Day features a massive group ride over the Brooklyn Bridge to Coney Island—more than 13 miles on one wheel.

As for Saturday, August 30, the festival’s main event will be held at Hudson River Park's Pier 76 in Manhattan. Activities include a learn-to-ride area, basketball competition games, demonstrations and more. The fun wraps up on Sunday, August 31, with more one-wheel adventuring in Hudson River Park.

The free, four-day event is presented by the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and features dozens of one-wheeled riders sure to turn heads. All ages are welcome to attend. Here's the full schedule.

The show is on Saturday, September 27. An annual NYC event since 2012, Global Citizen Festival effectively turns the Great Lawn into a massive open-air concert as a reward for doing good in the community.

The all-white affair that is Le Dîner en Blanc is returning to NYC this fall, landing in an undisclosed location on September 19. Billed as the “World’s Largest Dinner Party,” the roaming event gathers 100,000 people around the globe, all clad in white, to celebrate an evening of gathering, food and revelry under the stars.

This year, lucky New Yorkers attending the French-inspired picnic will be joined by an authority of the cuisine itself: the one and only Daniel Boulud. The acclaimed chef, restaurateur and cookbook author will be curating picnic baskets for the exclusive evening. While reserving the food is not a requirement, the inclusion of the picnic baskets may just help lighten your load.

Make an account on the event's website so you can be notified when tickets go on sale and reserve one of Boulud's baskets for yourself.

Smorgasburg, the food bazaar spectacular, is back with dozens of great local vendors across three locations. Smorgasburg WTC runs on Fridays; Williamsburg is on Saturdays; and Prospect Park is on Sundays. Each location is open weekly through October. 

For its 15th year of outdoor food and fun, Smorgasburg will showcase more than 70 vendors. The food festival will be filled with fragrant Ethiopian stews, Hawaii-style street comforts, explosive pani puri, potato puff poutine and lots more.

Lose yourself in immersive digital art, evocative soundscapes and custom-crafted scents at the new Arte Museum. The museum promises "a multi-sensory journey beyond time and space" with dazzling installations inspired by the beauty of nature. The experience is heightened by soundscapes from acclaimed composer Young-gyu Jang and custom-crafted fragrances by master perfumer Marianne Nawrocki Sabatier. 

After the experience, you can unwind at Arte Cafe, offering fusions of tea as well as media art. From beginning to end, it's packed with Instagrammable moments. 

Expect to spend about an hour-and-a-half at this experience at 61 Chelsea Piers this fall. 

This fall, explore the long and rich history of queer communities in Manhattan's East Village and Lower East Side with Close Friends Collective's Queer History Walking Tours. 

The non-profit Henry Street Settlement and Close Friends Collective takes you on a two-hour storytelling journey through the through six stops. The stops change depending on the tour guide, current events or time of the year, but no matter what, the tour focuses on the importance of New York queer spaces and how they've evolved over the years. 

The organization is fronted by its founders and guides, a mix of historians, educators and a postdoctoral fellow: Salonee Bhaman, Jimmy Fay, Natalie Hill, erin reid, Katie Vogel (Henry Street Settlement public historian) and Daniel Walber. These walking tours are the combination of their love for public history and their desire to not let queer spaces/narratives be forgotten. 

Here are the fall dates:

— East Village, Saturday, September 13, 3-5pm

— Lower East Side, Sunday, October 12, 11am-1pm

— Lower East Side, Saturday, November 8, 11am-1pm

New York’s ultimate open-air yoga studio is back. Bryant Park just announced the return of its wildly popular free yoga series, with sessions running through September 17. Now in its 22nd year, the beloved al fresco fitness tradition has grown from a few mats on the lawn to one of the city’s largest and most consistent community workout programs, often drawing more than 1,000 yogis per class. Led by over 30 of the region’s top instructors, each session offers a fresh flow, welcoming all skill levels and ages.

Classes take place twice a week: Tuesdays at 10am on the Upper Terrace and Wednesdays at 6pm on the Lawn. Registration is required (and spots go fast), so snag yours early and don't forget to BYO mat and water. Mats are not provided, and trust us, you don’t want to be the one practicing on bare concrete while your neighbor nails a headstand.

Wrap yourself up in the artistry of quilts at a new exhibit this fall. The American Folk Art Museum is launching a new exhibition, "An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles" as part of its Lincoln Square reopening. 

The exhibition features approximately 30 quilts spanning the 18th to 20th centuries and weaves together the relationships between the environment and traditional quilting practices. The show, curated by Emelie Gevalt, promises "a groundbreaking exploration of the natural history of American textiles." It will take an ecological perspective into the many facets of global material culture that emerged in the early American republic through the 20th century.

Instead of focusing on the quiltmaker themselves, this exhibit is centered around the origins of textile production and its inspiration into quiltmaking, "exploring the environmental and social impact of cultivating and harvesting raw materials; all of which allowed quiltmaking to flourish as a quintessential American art form," the museum explained.

The exhibit will be on view from September 26 until March 1, 2026.

On this in-person walking tour, dig into the secrets of Lower Manhattan: a treasure trove of mysteries, obscurities, and hidden history waiting to be unearthed. Discover the lesser-known backstory, hidden gems, and untold secrets of this neighborhood. Whether you're an NYC local or a visitor, you'll learn lots about the city's time under Dutch rule, revolutionary history, and incredible works of art. Without ever leaving Manhattan, this tour will transport you to Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Time Out's very own Things to Do Editor Rossilynne Culgan will serve as your guide. Your $35 ticket includes the 90-minute walking tour and a signed copy of Culgan's book "Secret New York City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure." Books can be personalized upon request.

Register here for the final tour of the season on Saturday, September 6. 

Uh, how did we get here? If you've ever pondered that question, this immersive VR journey called Life Chronicles is worth your time. The experience will take you on a journey through Earth's history, from the origins of life 3.5 billion years ago to the rise of humans.

During the adventure, get up close to iconic creatures like the Tyrannosaurus, Cambrian marine life, Cretaceous dinosaurs—and even early humans. As the story unfolds, you'll witness evolutionary milestones of each great geological period. 

The show isn't just fun, it's also scientifically accurate. Life Chronicles was creatd by Excurio in collaboration with experts from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris, so you know you can believe what you see. It's virtual reality—and actual reality, too. See it at Eclipso, located at 555 West 57th Street.  

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One of the top things to do in New York this fall includes two weeks of drinking some of the best beer in NYC during Oktoberfest. Take in the beautiful fall foliage while drinking at one of the best beer gardens and German eateries in New York City. Oktoberfest New Yorkers, take advantage of this glorious holiday to sample fine Bavarian beer and food. Prost!

Wild Captives, the nation’s first female- and LGBTQ-owned archery studio, is now open. It's a place where everyone can "be their own superhero." The studio in Brooklyn’s Industry City offers empowering and fun hour-long introduction to archery classes every weekend for $45/person. 

Each intro class includes a chance to learn about different parts of the bow and safety requirements. After the lesson, each participant gets a chance to shoot the bow trying to pop a balloon pinned onto the bullseye. Intro-to-archery classes are available each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, bookable online for anyone over age 12.