Wear your sunblock: The best NYC events in June 2025 are things to do outside. When you’re not spending all your free time soaking up the sun at the best beaches or drinking atop the city’s finest rooftop bars, you'll be rocking your rainbow during the Pride March and catching Tribeca Festival screeners. Get your tickets now for the best happenings of the month and keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for good weather.
RECOMMENDED: Full NYC events calendar for 2025
Whether you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or an ally, it’s time to celebrate Gay Pride in NYC. Party at the Pride March, take a gay history walking tour, see a show, enjoy live music, and so much more.
Here are a few key dates to keep in mind:
If you’ve ever walked down a Harlem block or past Fulton Street and thought, “Damn, that’s a look,” you already understand the heart of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s razor-sharp spring exhibition that puts the precision, politics and poetry of Black menswear on full, unapologetic display.
Curated by Monica L. Miller (author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity), alongside Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the museum, the show threads together over 250 years of style, swagger and statement-making, from 18th-century dandies to 2025 red carpet icons.
Let’s just say it: this is one of the Met’s coolest shows in years.
A bevy of open-air night markets will pop up around town this summer, from the upper reaches of the Bronx to Queens. We've rounded up details on all of them, so grab some cash and make plans to eat locally—and deliciously. Here's the full rundown.
Sometimes you want to soar above it all, sipping effervescent libations among the clouds like some kind of fancy bird with an expense account. You want to be uplifted.
In the city that never stops sprawling, upward expansion has also reached great heights. Many incredible eating and drinking destinations are poised in the sky like treehouses with cover charges. Among these rooftop bars are old New York throwbacks, party destinations and seaside terraces practically fashioned for Instagram. They each offer booze, some kind of view and an invitation for you to get high. Keep reading for our favorites.
In the 1950 film masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood glamour is a dead-end street. Stalled there with no one coming to find her—except perhaps to use her car—is Norma Desmond: a former silent-screen goddess who is now all but forgotten. Secluded and deluded, she haunts her own house and plots her grand return to the pictures; blinded by the spotlight in her mind, she is unaware that what she imagines to be a hungry audience out there in the dark is really just the dark.
Get ready for another summer of fun in the sun! As of Memorial Day Weekend, New York City beaches are open for swimming and sunbathing. From the popular Jacob Riis Park Beach to The Bronx’s only public beach, we've got a detailed round-up of where to soak up the sun this summer.
When it gets hot, cool off in style. Several of New York’s finest hotels offer day passes for their rooftop pools, most of which include chaises and cabanas for lounging in addition to a full-service bar. The combination of two of New York's favorite things—swimming pools and rooftop bars—creates an elevated summer oasis worth throwing down some cash for. Make sure to cross one, if not all, of these pools off your summer bucket list.
Hitting a Yankees game couldn’t be more quintessentially New York. The Major League Baseball team, which won the World Series in 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009, made it to the World Series again in 2024!
To date, the Yankees have won 27 World Series in 42 appearances, the most in the MLB in addition to major North American professional sports leagues. Through 2024, their all-time regular season winning percentage is .569 (a 10,778 – 8,148 record)—the best of any team in MLB history.
Many free outdoor movie screenings are taking place all over town this summer, but none boast an ambiance quite like that of the Intrepid Museum's Summer Movie Series. After all, you get to watch some awesome movies while hanging out on the aircraft carrier's flight deck at sunset. How cool!
This year's films dive deep into the mysteries of the ocean, inspired by the museum's newest exhibition, Mysteries From the Deep: Underwater Archaeology. From high-seas adventures to underwater discoveries, each movie explores humanity's fascination with the deep.
For June, it's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest on June 27. Here's the full summer lineup.
Shop 'til you drop at FAD Market, a curated fashion, art and design pop-up marketplace. Peruse handmade jewelry, apparel, skincare products, tableware, artisanal packaged food, and more. Whether you're shopping for you or a friend (or even getting an early on that holiday shopping), there are plenty of local gems to pick up.
FAD—which stands for Fashion, Art and Design—takes over different venues with a horde of independent vendors and creators. Admission is free and dogs are welcome!
Here's the upcoming FAD Market schedule for June:
Forget the 14-hour flight from NYC to Tokyo, you can now discover the tastes of Japan with just a short subway ride to JAPAN Fes. The massive annual food festival just announced its 2025 dates, and the schedule is packed with events.
The organization is hosting nearly 30 outdoor events in NYC this year. What used to be just a summertime festival is now a year-round celebration across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Event organizers say it's the largest Japanese food festival in the world, attracting 300,000 visitors and featuring 1,000 vendors every year.
Here's the lineup for June: June 15 in Park Slope; June 22 on the Upper West Side; June 28 in Midtown.
Learn the story behind famed author Jane Austen in this exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum. "A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250" shares the inspiring tale of Jane Austen’s authorship and her gradual rise to international fame. See special artifacts from Jane Austen's House in England, along with manuscripts, books, and artworks that present compelling new perspectives on Austen's literary achievement, personal style and her global legacy.
As a teenager, Austen cultivated her imaginative powers and her ambition to publish. With encouragement from her father and her sister, she persevered through years of uncertainty, eventually becoming the famed author we know today.
The show is on view June 6–September 14, 2025.
The official marker of summer is back. And, yes, we mean drinking outside.
Torch & Crown Brewing Company has taken over part of Union Square Park for its summertime pop-up: Torch & Crown Beer Garden. For its third season in a row, the brewery is bringing its lineup of locally-made beers and bites to the square now through early November. Commandeering the historic Union Square Pavilion and the square surrounding it, the indoor-outdoor space welcomes all (even dogs!) to enjoy the festivities no matter the weather. The seasonal venue is the brewery's only offshoot outside of its operation in SoHo.
The Jazz Age Lawn Party is one of the most spectacular things to do this summer on gorgeous Governors Island. Step onto the ferry—and back in time—with thousands of revelers dressed to the 1920s-nines. During the event, enjoy live music from Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra, learn the Charleston, sip cocktails and have a picnic in the sunshine.
The Jazz Age Lawn Party takes place on two weekends this summer for double the fun: June 14 and 15 and August 9 and 10, 2025. General admission costs $55/person; grab yours here.
Pedro Pascal is headed to space—sort of.
The beloved actor will lend his voice to "Encounters in the Milky Way," the brand-new Hayden Planetarium Space Show opening at the American Museum of Natural History on June 9, 2025. The show marks the seventh installment in the museum’s storied Space Show series and celebrates the 25th anniversary of the iconic Rose Center for Earth and Space.
Using jaw-dropping visualizations based on real data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission (which has mapped nearly two billion stars), “Encounters in the Milky Way” takes viewers on a cosmic joyride through billions of years of galactic motion.
The notion of robots discovering love—in a world where nothing lasts forever, including their own obsolescent technologies—could easily fall into preciousness or tweedom. Instead, it is utterly enchanting. As staged by Michael Arden (Parade), Maybe Happy Ending is an adorable and bittersweet exploration of what it is to be human, cleverly channeled through characters who are only just learning what that entails.
Giant puppets, reggaeton bands, salsa dancers, and floats will take over Fifth Avenue in Manhattan this Sunday for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. More than a million people typically participate in and attend the parade, making it the largest demonstration of cultural pride in the nation. An iconic institution for over half a century, the parade seeks to raise awareness of Puerto Rican culture and history and highlight the community’s contributions to the world.
The parade is on Sunday, June 8, 2025, and kicks off at 11am. The parade route typically marches along Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 79th Street in Manhattan.
A century ago, at the peak of the Harlem Renaissance, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was formed. The Harlem-based organization, a part of the New York Public Library, has grown into a national landmark and world-renowned institution dedicated to the preservation and public access of Black history.
To commemorate its 100 years in existence, The Schomburg Center will host a year-long celebration, including a major festival on June 14. The event will take over the inside and outside of The Schomburg Center for “an old-school block party.”
Stay tuned to schomburg.org/100 for more details.
Viola's Room, an immersive theatrical experience, will kick off an 18-week Off Broadway engagement starting June 17 at the Shed through October 19. Consider it the successor to the wildly popular Sleep No More, which closed this winter.
The new production was conceived and directed by Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett, who was also responsible for the success of Sleep No More. In a nod to the rising popularity of celebrity-led theater offerings, award winning actress Helena Bonham Carter will narrate the entire piece, "an audio-driven adventure that reimagines Barry Pain's 1901 gothic short story The Moon-Slave for a modern audience," according to Playbill.
Tickets for Viola's Room start at $49 and are available here.
The Brooklyn Museum is about to get a major dose of calm. Starting June 11, visitors can enter a Tibetan Buddhist shrine room with ritual horns, butter lamps and the hum of chanting monks, courtesy of a long-term loan from the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art.
This loan is part of a broader shift for the Rubin Museum, which, in early 2024, announced the closure of its New York City building in order to become a global “museum without walls.”
Designed to evoke a traditional household shrine's look, feel and spirit, the room features more than 100 objects used in Tibetan Buddhist practice. Visitors will find elaborately painted thangkas (scroll paintings), bronze sculptures of deities and ornately carved furniture from Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia, dating from the 12th to 20th centuries.
New York City's musical love language? Free summer concerts across the city's most most incredible parks. Case in point: the annual Bryant Park Picnic Performances lineup presented by Bank of America.
This year, illustrious institutions like the New York City Opera and Carnegie Hall Citywide will put on a wide range of 25 free performances, 15 of which will be livestreamed as well (just in case you can't make it to them all).
Here's the June lineup:
— Thursday, June 5 (7 - 9pm): Limón Dance Company, EMERGE125, KAŌS Dance Collective
— Friday, June 6 (7 - 9pm): Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Gibney Company, Syren Dance
— Friday, June 13 (7 - 9pm): Doug Varone and Dancers and Kyle Marshall Choreography
— Saturday June 14 (7 - 8:30pm): The Jimmy Heath Big Band with Music Director Antonio Hart
— Friday, June 20 (7 - 10pm): Folk Night: Why Bonnie, Tasha, Marem Ladson
— Saturday, June 21 (6 - 10pm): Disiniblud, additional artists TBA
— Thursday, June 26 at (7 - 8:15pm): Opera Goes to Hollywood
— Friday, June 27 at (7 - 8:15pm): Opera Goes to Hollywood
Smorgasburg, the food bazaar spectacular, is back with dozens of great local vendors across three locations. Smorgasburg WTC runs on Fridays; Williamsburg is on Saturdays; and Prospect Park is on Sundays. Each location is open weekly through October.
For its 15th year of outdoor food and fun, Smorgasburg will showcase more than 70 vendors. The food festival will be filled with fragrant Ethiopian stews, Hawaii-style street comforts, explosive pani puri, potato puff poutine and lots more.
The city's most beloved free concert series is back with events across the five boroughs. The 2025 SummerStage season will open on Wednesday, June 4, in Central Park with a free show showcasing the best of New Orleans jazz with headliner Marcus Miller. SummerStage runs through October 9.
Events happen just about every week of the summer including free concerts, dance performances and film screenings.
The official line-up, which is right here, includes artists T-Pain, Snail Mail, Madison Cunningham, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Metropolitan Opera, Trixie Mattel and Amanda Lepore, Counting Crows, Ghostface Killah, The Gaslight Anthem and more.
Grab your paddles, pickleball fans, because the popular sport is back in Central Park all summer long. CityPickle is now open at the park's Wollman Rink through the early fall.
This is the third season for pickleball on 14 courts in the center of Manhattan—the largest pickleball offering in the Northeast. This tennis/ping-pong/badminton hybrid has become the country's fastest-growing sport, with more than 130,000 New Yorkers flocking to Wollman Rink's courts in past years. All skill levels are welcome for court rentals, clinics, open play, and private events from 8am to 9pm daily. Plus, expect summer camps, events, and special free programming.
While most art exhibits in New York City keep you at a distance, the Museum of Modern Art invites you to get closer at its new Hilma af Klint exhibit, “What Stands Behind the Flowers.”
Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is typically most known for “Paintings for the Temple,” her giant abstract artworks depicting geometric and organic shapes that she attributed to “divine messengers” or spirit guides. This body of work, however, takes its direction from af Klint herself and focuses on the natural world—highly detailed botanical drawing—in which she assigns a spiritual meaning to.
On view for the very first time, these self-studies ask us to attune to the natural world in a new way. See it through September 27.
Those who lived through the Cold War era will remember the horrors of the time: Wearing identification tags to school, practicing duck-and-cover drills and facing the constant threat of nuclear war. Though we’re only a few decades removed from that generation, it can be hard for younger people to wrap their minds around those terrors.
A new exhibit at NYC’s Poster House titled “Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace” sheds light on the Nuclear Age, exploring its potential for scientific innovation and its use as a dangerous weapon. The exhibit chronicles the past through a visually stunning collection of 60 posters, including artwork by General Dynamics as well as activist pieces protesting nuclear war; it also offers important lessons for our future.
“Fallout” is the debut point-counterpoint exhibition at Poster House, which is the first museum in the U.S. dedicated to the history of posters. Find the exhibit in the Flatiron District museum through September 7, 2025.
The Brooklyn Flea is undoubtedly one of the most popular flea markets to hit in NYC if you're looking for the best selection of throwback wares and records.
The Brooklyn Flea DUMBO is now underway on the cobblestone streets of Pearl Plaza, where it spotlights roughly more than 40 vendors that display their goods beneath the Manhattan Bridge. It's open every Saturday and Sunday from 10am-5pm.
Brooklyn Flea also operates in Chelsea year-round on Saturdays and Sundays, 8am-5pm.
It's the surest sign of summer: Luna Park in Coney Island has reopened for the 2025 season. This year at the iconic amusement park, expect new arcade games, renovated retail outlets, and a new patio at Salt & Sizzle.
It's the largest amusement park in New York City with over 50 attractions, including the go-kart ride Electric Eden Raceway, custom-made roller coaster Tony's Express, and log flume ride Leti's Treasure. Plus, there's entertainment, shopping, and dining along the picturesque Riegelmann Boardwalk.
There's a full calendar of opening hours here. Admission to Luna Park is free, with ride prices starting at $4.
Juneteenth is the celebration and commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. It's celebrated on June 19, which falls on a Thursday this year. Some celebrations take place on the actual holiday, while others take place on the weekend.
Juneteenth events in NYC this summer include a festival, musical performances, comedy shows, and family activities.
How is she? Ever since it was confirmed that Audra McDonald would star in the latest revival of Gypsy, Broadway fans have speculated about how Audra would be as Mama Rose—or, more nervously, whether Audra could be Mama Rose, the implacable stage mother who sacrifices everything to make her two daughters into stars. So let’s get that question out of the way up front. How is Audra as Rose? She’s a revelation.
So, too, is the rest of George C. Wolfe’s deeply intelligent and beautifully mounted production, which comes as a happy surprise.
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.
One of the best live music venues in the city has announced its summer concerts schedule. Here's what's coming to the Seaport's Rooftop at Pier 17 this June:
June 1 – Tennis
June 2 – SiR
June 3 – The Kooks
June 5 – Russell Dickerson
June 7 – Jack’s Mannequin
June 14 – Reggae Fest Blaze
June 25 – James Arthur
June 29 – 311
You can purchase tickets here or in-person at the AXS Box Office at Pier 17.
Concerts, plays, dance shows, operas: These and more can be found on Little Island all summer long, whether at its 687-seat open-air amphitheater (the Amph), its smaller performance stage (the Glade) or at pop-up locations throughout the space.
A few highlights this June include:
— "The Case of the Stranger," June 26 at 10pm in the Glade (free): A brand-new song cycle exploding a piece of Shakespeare text to explore contemporary themes of immigration
— "No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin," June 21–25 at 8:30pm in the Amph ($25): The Grammy-winning album honoring the life, legacy and writing of James Baldwin, celebrating the centenary of his birth and brought to life onstage.
Many of the shows are free, and those that aren't cost just $25; to buy tickets to them, visit Little Island's ticketing page on TodayTix.
Clear your calendar: Summer for the City is back, with Lincoln Center once again turning its Manhattan campus into the ultimate cultural playground.
The fourth annual festival runs from June 11 through August 9 this year, bringing more than 200 events to the city, nearly all of them free or pay-what-you-wish. Expect global dance parties, experimental opera, kids’ storytimes, jazz nights, pop-ups and tons more.
Bottom line? This year’s Summer for the City isn’t just a festival—it’s a citywide celebration. While most events are free or pay-what-you-wish (the suggested ticket price is $35), you do have to snag tickets in advance.
Every summer, Hudson Yards hosts a slate of free community programs that undoubtedly turns even the biggest area skeptic into a curious wanderer—and for good reason: the lineup is great.
This year, for example, Backyard at Hudson Yards presented by Wells Fargo is bringing outdoor fitness classes to the masses alongside Lululemon; hard-hitting concerts; kid-friendly activations; and even pet adoption days. Sure, the whole thing might be sponsored by a mega-bank, but your glutes won’t notice as you're getting that free workout in.
To keep track of all the programming and any changes, make sure you're checking on Hudson Yard’s website before you plan your visit.
Rooftop Cinema Club takes movie-going to a whole new level—literally. This rooftop film series at a midtown skyscraper offers stunning views and an impressive lineup of films.
In addition to the movie magic, the venue also offers movie snacks, a full bar and cute photo opps. June includes Pride Month films, a Community mini-marathon, a Father's Day film series, and a Juneteenth series. Ticket prices range from $23-$29/person depending on your seating preference and movie time.
Even if you don't know how to play music, it’s practically impossible not to reach out and strum or pluck the strings when an instrument appears in front of you—or at the very least, expect that a musician will appear to play it. That’s what makes these new abstract artworks by Jennie C. Jones so mind-bending.
Three massive instrument sculptures now sit on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop in Jones’ latest work titled “Ensemble.” But only one of the instruments makes sound when it’s activated by the wind. The other two don’t make sound at all, even though they’re capable of doing so. That's exactly the point. Instead, their potential for sound and the tension between dormancy and activation is where they hold power. Go see these cool sculptures on the Met’s gorgeous rooftop through October 19.
This will be the last roof garden commission for at least five years as the museum will soon embark on construction of its new modern and contemporary art annex, the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing. When it opens in 2030, it will house the Met’s collection of 20th- and 21st-century art. The rooftop commission is expected to be back in 2030 as well.
The Brooklyn Museum is celebrating a big birthday. As the museum turns 200, it’s marking the occasion with a sprawling exhibition that celebrates the museum's history, showcases artists from the borough and highlights new gifts in the collection. The massive show highlights hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and photographs pulled from the impressive museum’s full collection of 140,000 items.
“Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200” is now open through February 22, 2026.
'Tis the season for outdoor movies. Free movie nights are a classic way to spend a summer evening in NYC, and there's no more iconic spot than Bryant Park.
Bryant Park's big screen will light up for Paramount+ summer nights in Midtown. Here's the June lineup:
June 9: Pretty in Pink
June 16: The Wood
June 23: Kinky Boots
June 30: Stand by Me
Portraits of American First Ladies typically don't tell us much about the personality of the person. Maybe we can see a steely determination in her eyes or get a sense of her style, but we don’t learn much about who she is. Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama changed all of that by focusing on the essence of the subject.
You can now see this iconic portrait and many other renowned works by Sherald in a new exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art located in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The exhibition, titled “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is open through August 10, 2025. With nearly 50 paintings, it’s the most comprehensive exhibition of the American artist’s work, which includes a portrait of Breonna Taylor, as well as paintings that center everyday Black Americans.
New Yorkers love to talk about transit—to complain about it, to joke about it, to express their love for it. So it’s only fitting that The New Yorker magazine would cover transit in exactly the same way. Since the magazine began a century ago, it has featured cartoons that both rib and extol public transportation.
A new exhibit, “Commentary on The Commute: A Century of The New Yorker's Transportation Cartoons," explores how the magazine’s famed comical drawings have explored this subject over the past 100 years. The exhibit is free to visit through October 26, 2025; find it at the New York Transit Museum’s outpost inside Grand Central Terminal.
Next time you’re waiting for a train or passing through Grand Central, it’s worth taking the time to stop and explore this free exhibition. Find it in the shuttle passage next to the stationmaster’s office. It's open on weekdays from 10am-7:30pm and weekends from 10am-6pm.
Back in the 1970s, there was a common rallying cry at early LGBTQ+ marches: "Out of the closets! Into the streets!" An exhibit at The Hispanic Society Museum & Library borrows that refrain for its title as it brings together 18 photographs by Francisco Alvarado-Juárez that highlight the chaotic and colorful vitality of this first iteration of Pride.
The photographs of the 1975 and 1976 marches showcase the racial and ethnic diversity of the movement and reveal the nuanced bonds of kinship formed among marchers from disparate backgrounds. In these early days, Pride was a local effort in New York City known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March or the Gay Liberation Parade. Held as a direct response to the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, the events were a call for increased queer visibility at a time when New York still enforced so-called "sodomy" laws that facilitated the repression of the LGBTQ+ community.
See the exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in Washington Heights from through August 31, 2025. It's free to visit.
To relaunch its summer exhibition program, Japan Society will present Susumu Shingu’s first solo institutional show in the United States this spring, highlighting the acclaimed “Sculptor of the Wind’s” works in various sizes, including the artist’s site-specific projects in New York. Spanning five decades across art, design, and architecture, the exhibit will showcase Shingu’s abstract organic shapes, which recall insects, birds, and plants, as well as installations that respond to Japan Society’s architecture and invite audiences into meditative encounters.
Find the exhibit at Japan Society in Midtown East from June 20 through August 10.
If you're a diehard fan of seeing Tom Cruise hanging dangerously off of a cliff or out of a helicopter or from the side of a skyscraper, this is the museum exhibit for you.
Now through December 14, Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in Astoria is celebrating the pop-culture phenomenon that is the Mission: Impossible film franchise with Mission: Impossible—Story and Spectacle, an exhibition that immerses visitors in the remarkable stunts and key dramatic moments of the decade-spanning series. Sections of the exhibition will be devoted to each film in the series, spotlighting each title's mind-boggling stuntwork and action sequences as well as behind-the-scenes content of how it all came together onscreen.
From its art museums (The Met and MoMA) to its attractions New York City is the best city in the world.
Many of New York City's cruise lines, touring vessels and party boats are open for business.
It’s no secret that New Yorkers are stressed, but when it comes to unwinding, we’re pretty competitive about that too.
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