NYC events in June 2021

Whether you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, it’s time to celebrate Gay Pride in NYC. Party at the Pride March, stand up at the Pride Rally, and get down at Pride Week at great events, including dances and parties.

Broadway may still be dark for the summer, but just a few avenues down 42nd Street, live performances are returning in a big way to Bryant Park. With support from Bank of America, the park’s Picnic Performances will be bringing 25 live, in-person events to the park, many featuring performers from the city’s top arts institutions. (The events will also be available to live stream.) The 2021 season is set to kick off on June 9 with a four-night run of back-to-back shows by musicians from the New York Philharmonic and will close on September 20 with an event that will serve as a 100th-anniversary celebration for The Town Hall. Also planned this summer are concerts produced in partnership with Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City Opera, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Joe’s Pub, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Limón Dance Company, Elisa Monte Dance, National Sawdust, Harlem Stage with Jazzmobile and Historic Harlem Parks, Greenwich House Music School, New York Chinese Cultural Center, Music from the Sole, and more.

All of the outdoor concerts will be free and open to the public. The park will observe all current safety protocols for the event and also provide enough room for social distancing (audience registration will be required in advance.)

Here's the official schedule:
The New York Philharmonic: Four Nights in Bryant Park (6/9 to 6/12)
New York City Opera: Pride in the Park (6/18) and Carmen (7/2)
New York Chinese Cultural Center (6/25)
Joe’s Pub: Mykal Kilgore (6/26)

Jazz Age Lawn Party is an essential annual summer stop for revelers looking to dance in the open air and find great things to do outside. Governors Island is the perfect venue to leave the 21st century behind for the delights of the Prohibition-era (including “speakeasy” summer drinks). Dress the part with festive, period-appropriate attire, and come ready to dance at the Jazz Age Lawn Party.

DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, is launching a Spring Showcase—a four-week online festival featuring some of the year’s most talked-about nonfiction episodic series and films (Pretend It's a City, Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry, and Framing Britney Spears among others), paired with exclusive conversations featuring the creative teams behind them. Special guests like Padma Lakshmi, Steve James, Fran Lebowitz, Dr. Orna Guralnik, Asif Kapadia and Louis Theroux will make appearances. “DOC NYC is excited to create a spring focal point to build upon our annual fall festival, now in its 12th year,” said the festival’s Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen. “We’re living through a period of rapid expansion of the documentary field, and we’re thrilled to offer a new opportunity to discover a diverse array of important nonfiction work. Over the last year, DOC NYC has expanded our professional and educational programming for filmmakers beyond the fall season, with great results. With Spring Showcase, we’re aiming to do the same for documentary-loving audiences as well.” The first Spring Showcase lineup spans a wide variety of nonfiction formats and subjects, from hosted series to biographies, vérité films and mult-part cultural explorations, covering everything from culinary history to city politics, pop music, and the inner workings of intimate relationships.

Seeking to promote Kings County’s cinematic indie cred, the 11th season of this showcase features dozens of independent filmmakers—both first-timers and Hollywood vets—who have lived and worked in the borough. The first evening opens with New York premiere of One Moment a heartwarming family comedy/drama starring Danny Aiello in his final performance and 53 more films to follow as well as panel talks and other events. Expect to see snippets of your favorite Brooklyn spots appear in these films.

Take a "socially-distanced" gallery walk in the West Village by Art on the Avenue NYC this summer. The organization has placed work by under-represented New York artists in vacant storefronts for all to see at any time. Norma Krieger and Susan Davis Eley, curators for Art on the Ave, put out a call for work that spoke to the theme, "Awakening" (which is what most of NYC is doing right now). Of the more than 150 submissions received, the team agreed to show the work of 28 artists, who come from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Each artist has recorded a one-minute audio clip, produced by MouthMedia Network, to accompany their art. It can be accessed through a QR code.

Pier 17 is offering free fitness once again! On Tuesday and Thursday nights as well as Saturday mornings through September, get your body going with classes from Trooper Fitness, Pure Barre, HIIT The Deck, and Lyons Den Power Yoga. 

Broadway at the Drive-In returns to Halletts Point Play in just in time for Memorial Day weekend with The Blues Brothers. The hybrid film screening-Broadway show will feature a live band and Broadway’s Charity Angel Dawson (Mrs. Doubtfire, Waitress) as Mrs. Murphy, Nick Rashad Burroughs (Radial Park’s Purple Rain, Kinky Boots) as Reverend Cleophus James, F. Michael Haynie (Wicked, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as Elwood Blues, Brian Charles Johnson (Spring Awakening, American Idiot) as “Joliet" Jake Blues, and Antoine L. Smith (Carousel, The Color Purple) as Ray. Ladonna Burns and Anne Fraser Thomas will also portray the Blues Sistas. The live performance will play in-sync with the film projected on a massive screen above the stage. The show officially opens Thursday, May 27, and will continue every Friday and Saturday evening at 8pm through Saturday, June 26.

Spectators have the choice of watching the shows from their vehicles or from reserved picnic tables, outfitted with boom boxes for audio, that seat up to four people. Cinema-style beverages and snacks will be sold on-site, and safety protocols will be enforced. (These include temperature checks upon arrival, wristbands for social distancing and monitors on hand to ensure that everyone plays by the rules.)

Radial Park is located right next to the Astoria stop of the NYC ferry, and is a roughly 20-minute walk from the 30th Ave station of the N and R subway lines. 

Get ready, New York, your acceptance letter to Hogwarts is here—the most magical place in New York City, the Harry Potter Store New York, has opened on June 3. Wizards and witches will be able to shop from the world's largest collection of Harry Potter merch across 21,000 square feet at 935 Broadway in the Flatiron District at this highly-anticipated store. We've been waiting for a year to walk through these magical doors and on Friday, we were finally able to check it out.

Give pop a hug and laugh at his corny jokes: It’s Father’s Day! Find parent-friendly attractions, from baseball to barbershops, and ideas for things to do. Plus, forget the old boxers-and-socks routine and discover where to get great gifts for Dad.