NYC July 8th-11th

June 25, 2016 12:11 PM

My partner and I are coming down for the weekend in early July: are there any interesting things happening that weekend worth checking out?

We have a travel guide that we've been building a plan off (See this monument! Eat here! So on and so forth) but I'm wondering if there's something like a cultural celebration or a neighbourhood party that would be happening that would be fun to go to.

We're staying in Greenwich Village, but are planning to trip around as much as we can bear and we're both ok with being outside/spending lots of time on our feet.

Any other recommendations are also more than welcome! I want to heart the heck out of NY!

posted by The Notorious SRD to Travel & Transportation around New York, NY (5 answers total)

Best answer: Have you ever been to the city before? That will help steer the ideas a bit.

In terms of specific-to-that-weekend happenings, you may want to check out the Time Out New York site right before you arrive - they're pretty good about listing the limited-time events. I don't see any unique-to-that-weekend events in there just now, but they may post more as the time grows closer.

As for something generally cool - I always recommend Governors Island. It's part a national landmark, part a funky city park, part an island escape, part an outdoor art exhibit; it's got all manner of stuff out there. You'll be there during the "Come Out And Play" festival, which is a multi-city event designed to get people to just generally play around more; I've been a couple times, and they have a bunch of spots scattered around the playing field they have where people have made up funky games and they're teaching 'em to you so you can try them out. One game I remember involved you and your partner throwing plastic fruit to each other and trying to catch it in an apron, and another....God, I don't even remember the rules, I just remember that half of us were trying to shoot the other half with nerf arrows or steal weird hats off their heads and it was super-awesome.

But if you want a more chill experience, you can also wander around the old historic buildings (not go inside, unfortunately) that date back to the island's history as a 19th-century army base, or check out the open studio summer events, or have lunch from the 20 different food trucks, or... it's just a cool place.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:32 PM on June 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you happen to be made of money, several of the main characters in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton are doing their farewell shows on the 9th.
posted by town of cats at 12:51 PM on June 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

Even if you can't afford tickets (you can't), the scene outside the Richard Rodgers Theater on the afternoon and evening of the 9th should be quite a spectacle. Google #Ham4Ham to get an idea of the kind of free fanservice the cast provides to fans waiting in line for cancellation tickets or lottery entries.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:26 PM on June 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

If you sign up now, you can get the Nonsense list and/or Gemini and Scorpio list for that week, chock full of fun, alt, underground, and otherwise groovy parties, happenings, etc. Google those!
posted by vrakatar at 4:13 PM on June 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for the tips! Time Out and the Nonsese lists are pretty perfect for what I was thinking, and the Governor's Island suggestion is definitely work checking out in more detail.
posted by The Notorious SRD at 5:44 PM on June 26, 2016