Things to do on a Sunday in New York

Climate change gets the performance-art treatment in Reservoir, an interdisciplinary work blending lecture, theatre and embodied testimony to examine Chile’s ongoing water crisis. Directed and performed by María José Contreras, the piece focuses on Santiago’s increasingly precarious water supply, connecting the retreat of Andean glaciers with the country’s unusual legal framework governing water rights—like a water code enacted during the dictatorship that privatized water. Part of the Citizen Arts Festival, the free performance at Barnard Movement Lab (3009 Broadway) takes place September 17 and 18 at 6:30pm. Donations are welcome, but advance RSVP is required.

A new queer film festival is bringing three days of screenings, parties and live events to two of Fire Island's most storied communities. The inaugural Grove & Pines Film Festival will take place September 18 through 20 across Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, about 60 miles east of Manhattan. The festivities will unfold at Whyte Hall in the Pines and the Cherry Grove Community House, the latter of which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and considered the country’s oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ theater.

The festival’s inaugural lineup includes 42 shorts and four feature-length films, with comedy, horror, animation and documentaries all represented. Familiar faces featured onscreen will include Alan Cumming, Cheyenne Jackson, Johnny Sibilly and Miss Peppermint.

Day passes cost $50, while a three-day weekend pass is $140; the premium Director’s Cut pass has already sold out. Tickets and the full schedule are available through the festival website.

Bed-Stuy is getting seven straight days of dance, drumming, wellness and live performance when the Art Is Alive Festival returns for its 10th anniversary.

Presented by the Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation—which is marking its own 25th anniversary—the free festival will run from Sunday, September 13, through Saturday, September 19, at Asase Yaa School of the Arts, located on MacDonough Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Patchen Avenue. This year’s theme, “Rooted 10 Years Deep,” pays tribute to the residents, families, artists and cultural leaders who have helped sustain the event over the past decade.

Programming includes free 90-minute classes spanning West African and Caribbean dance, percussion and wellness. The entire week builds toward the festival’s second annual block party, which will take over the neighborhood from noon to 7pm on Saturday, September 19.

Before she was a Disney star with a sidekick, Mulan was a powerful, beloved figure in Chinese culture. Now her story gets the appropriately epic treatment, with China Ningbo Performance & Arts Group's award-winning dance drama making its New York debut at the David H. Koch Theater September 18 through 20. The show retells the legendary heroine’s story through classical Chinese dance, martial arts and some seriously grand theatrical design (as in, a 49-foot revolving stage). Not to mention an original score blending traditional Chinese instruments with symphonic music (sorry, no "I'll Make a Man Out of You" in this version) to turn Mulan’s journey from dutiful daughter to warrior into a full-scale spectacle.

Trade the subway for two wheels and see Queens the way it was meant to be seen: from a bike. The inaugural Ride Queens Bike Tour, hosted by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, NYC Parks and Transportation Alternatives, offers two scenic routes through the borough, both beginning and ending in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Choose a 12-mile loop through Central Queens or go big with a 25-mile route through Northern and Eastern Queens. The free ride takes place Sunday, September 20 at 10am, rain or shine. Registration is required and capped at 2,000 riders, so get on that ASAP. Stick around afterward for a festival with international food vendors, performances, giveaways and more.

Blow, Gabriel, blow! Trumpet tunes get a modern makeover at the Festival of New Trumpet Music, an annual celebration dedicated to the artists who are taking the instrument in new directions. Founded by trumpeter Dave Douglas, the celebration (known as FONT) brings together emerging and established musicians for a week of concerts, workshops and special projects across New York City. More than two decades in, the fest continues to champion boundary pushers, making it a good bet for anyone who thinks jazz sounds better when it comes with a side of rule-breaking.

Things kick off on September 14 with Pablo Masis’ Sparks at 7pm and Jim Seeley Quintet at 8pm. Wrapping it up on September 20 is Volker Goetze Quartet from 7 to 9pm. Check the festival site for the latest schedule of everything in between. There is a mix of free and ticketed events, with the latter ranging from $20 to $33.

Plantasia is calling, and if your ideal music festival involves synthesizers, plants and exactly zero bros asking where the afterparty is, you'll want to answer. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mort Garson's cult-classic album Mother Earth's Plantasia, the festival, which runs September 19 and 20, transforms Kingston's Seed Song Farm into a dreamy weekend of ambient music, botanical workshops, plant shopping and the first-ever live orchestral performance of the album. Your houseplants will be green with envy.

You can purchase a weekend pass for $151 or a single-day ticket for $82 if you've got other plans.

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.

Activities run September 20 through 28 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 27, 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. Featured authors include fan favorite Joyce Carol Oates, Namwali Serpell and Douglas Stuart. There's also Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and journalists Quiara Alegría Hudes, Colson Whitehead, Tracy K. Smith, Cristina Rivera Garza, Julia Angwin and more. 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.

Don't miss the Virtual Festival Day (Sunday, Sept. 20) and Children’s Day (Saturday, Sept. 26). Plus, more bookend events will take place across the five boroughs and online.

Here's the full schedule.

This year more than ever, New York’s climate conversation is gonna get very loud. Climate Week NYC returns September 20 through 27 with more than 1,000 events across the city and over 100,000 expected attendees. Organized by Climate Group alongside the United Nations General Assembly, the week brings together global leaders, business executives, policymakers, activists and communities to talk about the climate crisis and, ideally, plan to do something about it.

Oktoberfestivities have kicked off at bars and beer halls all across New York City. Grab your beer stein, rev up your appetite and head on over to one of the many celebrations that are already underway.

Find your weekday, weekend or even weeklong plans on our list of the best Oktoberfest events happening this year.