New York, New York!

December 23, 2008 10:16 AM

New York New Years ideas?

Myself and a double handful of friends are heading up to NYC on the 30th to visit more friends and get our New Years on. We're looking for something interesting to do the night of the 31st, as well as on the weekend - but no Times Square touristy crap. We're all mid to late 20s, dig live music, fine arts, industrial clubs, good eating, interesting bars, etc. Any decent events going on outside of the usual domain?

posted by FatherDagon to society & culture (11 comments total)

If you can get bikes for everyone, the time's up new years bike ride is a blast.
posted by dkg at 10:36 AM on December 23, 2008

If you like to run there is The Runner's World midnight 10K in Central Park.
posted by fixedgear at 10:45 AM on December 23, 2008

The Shanghai Mermaid new-year's eve burlesque show should be pretty cool. I think it's in Brooklyn.
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:06 AM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Unless there is a Runners World race I don't know about (totally possible), I think the Central Park run is actually the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run, which is a 4-miler.
posted by Rudy Gerner at 11:11 AM on December 23, 2008

I stand corrected.
posted by fixedgear at 12:06 PM on December 23, 2008

you can join the polar bear club at coney island new years morning. bring your swimmies!
posted by Mach5 at 1:28 PM on December 23, 2008

just a personal anecdote:
i've been in NYC for two New Year's Eves, and both were fun even though my friends and i had no actual plans. the first time (Dec. 06) we watched fireworks from the 59th Street Bridge. the second time (Dec. 07), my best friend and i had dinner at a nice Italian place, then walked around near Times Square. the atmosphere was fun/exciting, and at midnight, we just celebrated with whoever was around.

my point is that i know it can be stressful to figure out plans, and you might worry about whether everyone's having a good time, but imho, being in NYC on New Year's Eve is fun in and of itself.
posted by gursky at 2:18 PM on December 23, 2008

(also, the people we saw on the subway that were doing the midnight run? some of the coolest people ever)
posted by gursky at 2:19 PM on December 23, 2008

I like Nonsense for interesting, non-mainstream stuff to do in NYC:
posted by kenzi23 at 5:56 PM on December 23, 2008

to follow up on kenzi23's comment with a link: nonsensenyc.com.
posted by thejoshu at 7:13 PM on December 23, 2008

That Shanghai Mermaid looks to be right up our alley - that may be a winner. Thanks!
posted by FatherDagon at 7:59 AM on December 24, 2008