How do you keep up with NYC's events?

September 14, 2009 5:36 PM

NYC Filter: This past week I realize I must be living under a rock. I had no idea Jay-Z was performing, nor did I know it was the San Gennaro festival until I accidentally ran into it this weekend. What do you do or follow to keep up with upcoming festivals, concerts, and the like?
posted by helios410 to society & culture (17 comments total)

NY Magazine or Time Out New York.
posted by dfriedman at 5:41 PM on September 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

I often browse the 'Events' section of Last.fm to see what shows are coming up in my area and bandega.com sends me e-mail notifications when my favorite bands plan to stop by.
posted by blithecatpie at 5:43 PM on September 14

Free entertainment magazines (in Toronto it's the Eye), and also a quick browse of Ticketmaster with NYC as a filter will show you what's coming up, including festivals, concerts and most anything else.
posted by alona at 5:45 PM on September 14

Gothamist
posted by kimdog at 5:45 PM on September 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

The 2 above, arts section (weekend) NY Times (free online) and Village Voice, also free.
posted by Postroad at 5:45 PM on September 14

For info on stuff you might actually want to do, I recommend Nonsense NYC. Weekly e-mails about quirky events in the city.
posted by brina at 5:49 PM on September 14 [2 favorites has favorites]

Brooklyn Vegan is pretty good at listing upcoming shows when they are announced, so you have a good chance of getting a ticket to the more popular ones.

As mentioned, New York Magazine has a good events section every week. Concerts, classical music, book tours.
posted by smackfu at 6:08 PM on September 14

Truly, I would be much more of an enormous loser without Gothamist.
posted by elizardbits at 6:13 PM on September 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

Time Out New York and the New Yorkers livejournal group.
posted by blaneyphoto at 6:44 PM on September 14

When I lived in NJ and went into NYC on the weekends, I used Tourfilter to keep up with concerts. Now I also use Sonicliving for the same purpose.
posted by immlass at 7:24 PM on September 14

This post is geared towards music. I usually do a check of these websites:

ohmyrockness.com for indie/rock shows throughout the year.

The following three I google at the start of summer:
Central park always has free shows and things going on in the summer.
Sea breeze park in Brooklyn by coney island always has free thursday night concerts in the summer - this year Pat Benatar and Blondie performed this summer.
River to river has a bunch of free events/shows every summer.

The Siren Festival is in Coney Island every July, it's pretty cool.

And I pick up free newspapers when I get bored and look through the ads showing the venues and bands playing.
posted by KateHasQuestions at 8:39 PM on September 14

Cunning Linguist turned me on to the skint a few months ago. It's a great resource with an emphasis on cheap/free. Only drawback is weekday listings for that night show up some time during the day so it can be difficult to plan ahead.
posted by minkll at 9:58 PM on September 14

Seconding Gothamist and if you live in Astoria, the Astorians community, the Joey in Astoria blog or Why Leave Astoria. There are similar forums or websites for other neighborhoods, if you go looking for them.

I also read TONY, occasionally look up what's going on at Goldstar, have a New York local news section in Google news, subscribe to Nonsense NYC, read the free daily papers sometimes, follow the New Yorkers LJ group, read pretty much anything taped to a lightpole at an intersection and ask my friends to tell me what they're doing. I don't go out and DO most of it, but I tend to know what's going on.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:34 AM on September 15

flavorpill and nthing skint, gothamist, and nonsense NY, TONY, NYTimes.
posted by Pineapplicious at 7:05 AM on September 15

NYCDailyDeals covers all kinds of events from street festivals to restaurant specials to concerts and comedy shows
posted by chalbe at 8:09 AM on September 15

I'm also subscribed to Groupon, which sends a about a discount on something cool to do every day.
posted by decathecting at 9:24 AM on September 15

If you use itunes, iConcertCal is a godsend. It's an iTunes plugin that scans your music library, and produces a calendar of when those bands are going to be playing in your area. It's fantastic for me, since I generally have music on hand of any band that I'm really interested in seeing. It's a good resource for your can't-miss concerts in your area.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:07 AM on September 15