NYC events in February 2022

The twice-annual discount dining event NYC Restaurant Week offers cheap dining deals at more than 300 restaurants in New York. From trendy newcomers to fine-dining standbys, the event draws bargain-hunting New Yorkers to try out new restaurants and revisit old favorites serving cheap eats.

From January 18 through February 13 get two-for-one tickets to several Broadway shows! Visit the Broadway ticket vendors Telecharge and Ticketmaster in advance to make sure that your accounts and credit cards there are up to date. Then, at 10am on January 11, go to Broadway Week website to peruse the list of participating shows and snatch up the best seats for the ones you want most. 

One of the best things to do in February is celebrate Black History Month. NYC offers many ways you can show your appreciation for African-American culture. Take a tour through the historic neighborhood of Harlem followed by dininig at one of the best Harlem restaurants. You can also take a trolley tour through Green-Wood Cemetery where notables like Susan Smith McKinney Steward (the first female black doctor in New York State) are buried. 

This month, Chinatown gets stormed by dragons, dancers and some of the best Chinese food the city has to offer in celebration of the Lunar New Year. But before you get lost in the bang of firecrackers, check out some of the best things to do in Chinatown, NYC. Brace yourself for what’s sure to be a wild celebration with the Chinese New Year Parade!

Every Saturday night at 10pm, two piano men battle it out to prove who is truly the master of all 88 keys, with a playlist decided entirely by the audience. Whether you’re in the mood for Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera or current chart toppers, these pianists are up for the challenge. But they expect you to do your part by singing along, but from home. Find tickets and request songs here: bit.ly/SRRshows

One of the most fun things to do at the annual Bryant Park Winter Village is to ride those bumper cars on ice. Available between 2pm and 8pm on weekdays and 11am to 5pm on weekends, the cars will be in the park through Sunday, February 27—so you've got a little over a month to have some fun on the ice. You can book your ride right here. New this year, the Bank of America Winter Village announced that it will also host special late-night rides—but no specifics on that just yet.

To help you have an enjoyable time on and around February 14, we’ve come up with Valentine’s Day ideas that should help you plan the Goldilocks of dates: one that’s not too cheap, not too expensive, not too over the top and not too uncaring—it’ll be just right.

No ticket to the shows? Don’t worry—feel like a fashion insider with our ultimate guide to NYFW. Tickets to the runway shows aren’t available to the general public, but newsflash: you don’t have to be part of the elite fashion world to feel like an insider. Maybe you don’t have a front-row seat to the shows or a spot reserved next to Anna Wintour, but don’t fret—we’ve got you covered. From free New York Fashion Week events you can actually attend to tips on how to get noticed by street style photographers, we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop.

The balmy and bountiful festival this year is titled The Orchid Show: Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope. The display, which was cut short in 2020, will return to transform the garden's conservatory into a tunnel of hypnotic floral designs reminiscent of a look through a kaleidoscope. There will be orchid towers of orange, yellow and green with undulating fields of white and plumes of purple orchids overhead as well as a kaleidoscopic tunnel of lights, NYBG says. And as usual, there will be special Orchid Evenings during which visitors can enjoy the attraction after dark, including a gorgeous display of lights, among the orchids. There will be alcoholic beverages and snacks for purchase, as well as live entertainment. 

A new eye-catching outdoor, interactive art installation has just taken over midtown Manhattan. "Passage," created by Serge Maheu, is a glowing pedestrian tunnel made of 20 circles of light that emit different sounds and shift in color as folks walk through it. Set up in the Garment District, on Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets, the exhibit is completely free to visit and will be on premise through February 13.