NYC events in May 2026

Just when you thought New York nightlife had hit its ceiling, it’s heading toward the top again—by about 1,100 feet.

Marquee Skydeck at Edge is officially back for its second season, starting May 1, turning the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere into a full-blown open-air nightclub. Set 100 stories above Hudson Yards, the 21+ series brings Tao Group Hospitality’s trademarks (read: big-name DJs, booming sound systems and a crowd ready to dance) to one of the city’s most vertigo-inducing settings.

This season’s lineup is stacked from the jump. Italian dance legend Benny Benassi is slated for May 2, with other early acts including Kaz James (May 8), Layla Benitez (May 9) and Agents of Time (May 15), according to the event calendar. Memorial Day weekend has Gareth Emery and MK both set to take over the decks, followed by names like Hot Since 82 later in June. And that’s just the start—more artists are expected to be announced as the season unfolds.

The Lower East Side Film Festival (LESFF) is back, folks! Now in its 16th year, LESFF runs through May 4, taking over downtown venues (primarily Village East Cinema) with a mix of premieres, shorts, throwbacks and some very downtown-coded events.

This year’s lineup kicks off on opening night with the New York premiere of Run Amok, a debut feature from NB Mager starring Alyssa Marvin alongside Patrick Wilson and Margaret Cho. The film follows a teenager channeling trauma into a musical, which feels very on-brand.

Elsewhere, there’s plenty to dig into. The Ark, part of the festival’s “Stay Indie” spotlight, takes viewers into eastern Ukraine, where a family’s farm becomes a refuge for displaced animals during the war. A 25th-anniversary screening of Ghost World will bring cast members back for a reunion and Q&A, while the closing night film, Public Access, looks at New York’s public-access TV boom and its influence on today’s creator culture.

Along with a place to pay your respects, Green-Wood Cemetery is also a place to, well, party: the gorgeous Brooklyn graveyard (500 25th Street at Fifth Avenue) is known for hosting all manner of musical performances, spirit tastings, twilight tours, spooky storytelling sessions and other after-hours festivities throughout the year, and come May, they're adding a new fête to the growing list of programming: MoonFest.

Kicking off the month on Friday, May 1 from 6pm to 11pm, MoonFest is Green-Wood's first-ever after-hours celebration of, duh, the moon, that celestial being that controls the ocean tides, our biological rhythms, our moods and a whole host of mystical properties. 

Creatives, scientists, historians and devoted stargazers from the Amateur Astronomers Association will guide you through tours, talks, and activities all inspired by Draper and his findings, "exploring the moon’s profound influence on our world, from the rhythm of the tides and time to mythology and the future of space travel." A complete schedule of tours, lectures, and activities is to come; keep an eye on the Green-Wood Cemetery website for more details. MoonFest is free and open to the public, though early registration is recommended. 

For two weekends only, the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place is getting a full tropical makeover, complete with palm-lined seating and a breezy, laid-back vibe as it hosts Movies Under the Palms.

Running through May 2, this free pop-up series turns the space into a cozy cinema where the only thing more inviting than the films is the setting itself. This is movie night, but with soft lighting, rows of seats tucked beneath swaying palms and an atmosphere that makes you want to settle in and stay awhile. And the lineup is pure comfort viewing that will be fun for all ages (Annie, The Wizard of Oz, etc).

To sweeten the deal, there will be pre-show activities, complimentary popcorn and free treats from SmartSweets. But if you’re looking to upgrade your movie snack game, Hudson Eats is just steps away. You can grab sushi rolls from Blue Ribbon or a stacked sandwich from All’Antico Vinaio and bring it back to your seat.

It seems that New Yorkers just can’t get enough of Andy Warhol, and the Whitney Museum of American Art is leaning into that appetite. On April 30, the museum debuted "Andy Warhol: Family Album," a new exhibition featuring 732 Polaroid photographs taken between 1972 and 1973 of the famed artist, specifically focusing on his social and personal life.

The selection of Polaroids is drawn from one of six Holson albums—those vintage collections that were once ubiquitous—containing hundreds of prints that Warhol himself assembled as part of his personal archive. 

This exhibition will feature a wide range of shots, from friends visiting Warhol on Long Island to images of the artist’s dog, Archie, as well as photographs from European vacations, together encompassing Warhol’s eye for capturing everyday life as a way to document relationships and social interactions.

There will be no new book smell when Audible opens Audible Story House on May 1, bringing a first-of-its-kind “bookless bookstore,” devoted entirely to audio storytelling, to downtown Manhattan.

The monthlong pop-up at 260 Bowery is being billed as both a listening lounge and a community hub, designed to bring stories off the page and into a fully immersive, sensory experience. The concept leans into the growing popularity of audiobooks and scripted audio, transforming the solitary act of listening into something more social, tactile and very New York.

Instead of browsing shelves, visitors will explore stories through physical “story tiles,” a hands-on system that is more akin to crate-digging at a record store than scrolling through a list on one's phone. After making your choice, settle into one of seven distinct listening spaces, each designed for different moods and formats. And be prepared to give your old earbuds the side eye, because the pop-up will feature high-end audio powered by Dolby Atmos, alongside premium listening setups with Sony headphones. 

Returning for its seventh year, the largest and longest-running AAPI comedy festival is back with a star-studded lineup that includes Aaron Chen, Youngmi Mayer, Sureni Weerasekera, James Tom, Kathleen Kim, Mic Nguyen, Michael Cruz Kayne, Adam Mamawala and Asian AF, among others. 

It's not just stand-up, either. Comedians will perform improv and even musical comedy. This year's festival will be held at the Asian-owned Sugar Mouse lounge in the St. Mark's neighborhood (47 3rd Ave.) on May 5, 6, and 7. The charity partner for this year’s NYC shows is Immigration Social Services (ISS).

The Public Theater announced the return of its beloved Free Shakespeare in the Park program, now part of a sprawling, citywide initiative dubbed Shakespeare for the City. Running from May 22 through September 8, the expanded program will bring performances, events and community programming to parks and plazas across all five boroughs.

For the 2026 season, the productions are as iconic as Central Park itself: Romeo & Juliet and The Winter’s Tale take the Delacorte stage, while As You Like It will travel across all five boroughs as this year's The Public's Mobile Theater Unit.

Crucially, the program’s famously democratic ticketing system is also expanding. Free ticket vouchers for performances at the Delacorte will once again be handed out across the city, including 12 branches of Citizens, the program’s presenting partner. This year, there will be 50 distribution locations spanning all five boroughs, an effort to make access to the coveted (and elusive) tickets a little more equitable.

The Catskill Flyer, operated by the Catskill Mountain Railroad, is returning for its 2026 season with weekend rides that feel like stepping straight into a pastoral postcard. Tickets start at just $20 for adults, with discounted fares for kids and seniors, making it one of the cheapest scenic excursions in New York State.

Departing from Kingston’s Stockade District, the 90-minute, round-trip journey rolls through some of the oldest landscapes in the country. The route cuts across the Hurley Flats, farmland that dates back to the 1600s, where stone walls, grazing cows and wide-open fields are the norm.

From there, the train crosses a trestle over Esopus Creek—keep an eye out for kayakers and fly-fishermen below—before climbing toward Hurley Mountain, where dense oak and hickory forests surround the tracks. It’s the kind of scenery that makes you forget your phone exists—at least for a few minutes.

Part of the charm is the train itself. The Flyer is pulled by a vintage diesel locomotive that dates back to the early 1950s and you can tell as it moves along the tracks. Riders can choose between classic enclosed coaches or open-air flat cars, which is the move if you want a full-sensory Catskills immersion. (One thing to know before you book: open-air seats tend to go fast.)

The aviation-obsessed rooftop pool at the TWA Hotel is officially relaunching its summer season, bringing back one of the city’s weirdest (and, honestly, coolest) warm-weather hangouts. Set atop the retro-futuristic hotel at JFK Airport, the rooftop space is embracing a nostalgic Endless Summer theme this year, inspired by the iconic 1966 surf documentary of the same name.

The centerpiece is the hotel’s heated infinity pool, which overlooks the runways at JFK. From the water, you can watch jets from Delta, Lufthansa and American and countless other airlines, both domestic and international, take off and land while you pretend you’re starring in a glamorous 1960s travel ad.

The pool itself stays open year-round and is temperature-controlled, which means you won’t shiver through your rooftop cocktail moment if the weather suddenly decides to behave like April again. According to the hotel, the water is also purified every 30 minutes, which is significantly faster than the standard public-pool recirculation schedule.

As for drinks, the rooftop bar is once again serving aviation-themed cocktails that fully commit to the bit. There’s the Jet Fuel, made with cucumber mint vodka, Aperol, lemon juice and muddled watermelon; the espresso-heavy Red Eye; and the always-solid Paper Plane, which feels especially appropriate given the setting. Food-wise, expect light bites and poolside snacks rather than a full sit-down restaurant situation.

If you missed Billie Eilish’s "Hit Me Hard and Soft" tour, New York is about to hand you a second chance, sans Ticketmaster bloodbath and nosebleed seats.

To celebrate the release of Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), the singer is bringing a limited-time immersive pop-up to Manhattan for one weekend only this May. The event lands at 2 Penn Plaza from Friday, May 8, through Sunday, May 10, timed to the nationwide theatrical debut of the nearly two-hour concert film.

The tour itself was massive. Eilish’s globe-spanning run stretched across more than 100 dates between 2024 and 2025, selling out arenas from Madison Square Garden to London’s O2 Arena and reportedly bringing in more than $220 million. The live show was known for its moody visuals and deafening sing-alongs and now, all of that is heading to movie theaters in 3D.

And because simply watching the film apparently wasn’t enough, the NYC pop-up is leaning fully into Billie-world. Fans can shop exclusive merchandise, browse Eilish’s fragrance collection and attempt to snag limited quantities of the tour’s wildly coveted jersey, which will almost certainly disappear first. Basically, if your personality is even slightly “Billie-coded,” this is your weekend.

New York City is finally getting the real-deal casino experience—and it’s arriving in Queens first.

Resorts World New York City opened the city’s first full-scale casino with live table games on Tuesday, April 28, marking a genuine first: legal blackjack, craps, baccarat and roulette operating inside New York City limits.

The property isn’t new—Resorts World has been running a massive slots-only casino at Aqueduct Racetrack since 2011—but this $5.5 billion expansion pushes it into full Las Vegas-style territory. And, for now, it will have the market to itself.

At launch, the casino will feature more than 240 table games and thousands of slot machines, with plans to scale up significantly over the next few years. The initial rollout alone includes roughly 1,250 new jobs (most of them table-game dealers), bringing the total workforce to more than 2,200, with more hiring expected by summer.

MoMA PS1 just opened "Greater New York 2026," its sprawling, building-wide exhibition that doubles as a snapshot of what artists across the city are actually making right now. The show officially runs through August 17, featuring 53 artists and collectives working across pretty much every medium you can think of.

This isn’t the type of show you can power through in 45 minutes, though. It takes over the entire museum with more than 150 works, including large-scale installations, new commissions, performances and pieces that, in many cases, have never been shown publicly before. There’s painting next to animation next to scenography next to something you’re not entirely sure how to categorize and that’s entirely the point.

Artists included in the show range from emerging names to more established figures, with a noticeable emphasis on early- and mid-career voices. Many have direct ties to Queens and the surrounding area, connecting the show to neighborhoods just outside the museum’s doors.

Who says museums need walls? This summer, one of Brooklyn’s most charming cultural projects is hitting the road again inside a gleaming custom Airstream trailer.

The Brooklyn Museum has officially announced the return of Museum on Wheels, a roaming mobile arts initiative that brings free hands-on creative programming to neighborhoods across the borough from May through October. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a tiny traveling museum packed with art activities, storytelling, games and community events, all taking place out of a retrofitted silver trailer.

This year’s route includes stops in Downtown Brooklyn, Flatbush, Fort Greene, Williamsburg, Kensington and beyond, with each event developed alongside local community groups and artists. The programming changes from stop to stop, but expect interactive art-making, games, storytelling and activities inspired by works in the museum’s collection.

There’s immersive theater, and then there’s Fight Back, which dispenses with the idea of spectators entirely. Returning to New York on May 4, May 11 and May 18, the experience drops participants directly into a pivotal moment in activist history: a March 13, 1989, meeting of ACT UP, the grassroots group that reshaped the national response to the AIDS crisis.

Created by David Wise, the setup is powerful. Instead of watching the story unfold, attendees are assigned the persona of a real person who attended that meeting, complete with a biographical profile and guidance on how to engage. (Yes, including Larry Kramer.) There are no actors to guide the emotional temperature, just a room filled with strangers tasked with embodying activists at a time when urgency, grief and anger were colliding in real time. And indeed, the action takes place in the very same room as the real-life meeting did almost 40 years ago.

Some attendees can choose to take on additional responsibilities—facilitators, agitators, organizers—mirroring the internal dynamics that made ACT UP both effective and fractious. The structure leans into that tension. You’re not just learning about history; you’re asked to participate in it, to make decisions, to speak (or not), to feel the pressure of collective action unfolding without a script.

A film festival dedicated entirely to Wallace Shawn is landing on the Lower East Side next month, Gothamist has reported, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Titled “Wallace Shawn: The Master Builder,” the series kicks off on May 8 at Metrograph, running through May 22 with a lineup that stretches beyond the actor’s most meme-able roles.

Shawn, now 82, has spent decades bouncing between worlds: beloved character actor, playwright, essayist and occasional leading man. There’s Clueless, where he plays the perpetually exasperated Mr. Hall, and yes, there’s The Princess Bride, the source of that immortal one-word catchphrase. But the real draw here is everything in between.

That idea shapes the lineup. There’s Vanya on 42nd Street, where Shawn takes center stage in a Chekhov adaptation, and A Master Builder, his 2013 reworking of Ibsen that gives the festival its name. There’s also the rarely seen Marie and Bruce, starring Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, which never received a proper theatrical release and is being screened here with special permission.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute is making a bold claim with its next blockbuster exhibition: that fashion isn’t just adjacent to art history, it’s stitched straight through it.

"Costume Art," the institute's 2026 spring exhibition, will examine the “dressed body” as a constant across more than 5,000 years of global art, pairing roughly 200 objects from the museum’s encyclopedic collection alongside historical and contemporary garments.

The exhibition will be organized into thematic body types, including the naked body, the classical body, the pregnant body, the aging body, the anatomical body and the mortal body, all structured around how artists and designers have shaped, abstracted or confronted the human form.

A landmark exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s earliest works is heading back to the borough where it all began—and for New York art obsessives, this is the kind of show that doesn’t come around often.

Opening during New York Art Week this May, Our Friend, Jean: Early Works of Jean-Michel Basquiat will take over Brooklyn’s Bishop Gallery, offering a rare look at the artist before the fame, the auctions and the mythology. The show runs May 13–17 and centers on a deeply personal collection that captures Basquiat in his formative years, when he was still hustling between downtown apartments and making work wherever he could.

If you mostly know Basquiat as the painter whose works now sell for eye-watering sums, this exhibition takes it back to the start. Well before becoming an international art star in the 1980s, Basquiat first made a name for himself in late-’70s New York as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, tagging cryptic phrases across Lower Manhattan.

Much of the work on view comes from the collection of Alexis Adler, who lived with Basquiat during a crucial stretch from 1979 to 1980. Her archive includes intimate photographs and pieces created on everything from doors to furniture, documenting the moment just before Basquiat’s meteoric rise.

For a playwright who's been dead for a few hundred years, Molière is sure having a moment. Hot on the heels of dueling Off Broadway productions of Tartuffe, beloved annual Brooklyn tradition Molière in the Park has announced its 2026 season of performances, workshops and outdoor productions, all completely free. The ambitious slate reaffirms the company’s mission to make classical theater accessible to everyone, regardless of background or income.

The season kicks off on May 14 at BRIC with A Very Modern Classical Evening, a double-bill that pairs contemporary and classical voices. The program includes staged readings of The Regulars, a new verse tragedy by playwright Le’Asha Julius, alongside Molière’s satirical one-act comedy The Ludicrous Ladies, starring Michael Emerson and Lakisha May. The performance continues MIP’s practice of placing classic texts in conversation with modern storytelling.

The New York Dance Parade will return on Saturday, May 16, for its 20th anniversary, bringing more than 10,000 dancers and over 100 styles of dance to the streets of Manhattan. Kicking off around 11:45 am at West 17th Street and Sixth Avenue, the procession will move downtown before culminating in a full-blown dance festival in Tompkins Square Park.

If you’ve never stumbled into it before, it’s a moving, high-energy mix of global dance traditions, everything from African and South American styles to voguing, breaking, house, salsa and swing, plus a combo of student performers and professional companies all sharing the same stretch of pavement.

This year’s edition is centered around an anniversary theme, “The Beat Goes On,” with a lineup of grand marshals that showcases how wide the dance world really is. Honorees include Joan Myers Brown, a force in American concert dance; DJ and producer Timmy Regisford, a key figure in New York City’s house music scene; Christine Jowers, founder of The Dance Enthusiast; and Jeff Selby, creator of New Style Hustle, a genre that’s become global.

Once the last dancers hit the East Village, things shift into festival mode. From 3 pm to 7 pm, Tompkins Square Park turns into a dance playground, with performances across multiple stages, a teaching stage for anyone ready to jump in and a dance party area powered by DJs.

After more than a decade of drawing crowds to Brooklyn waterfronts and Prospect Park’s lawns, Smorgasburg is finally heading somewhere a little more central. Starting on May 14, the city’s best-known open-air food market will set up shop at Columbus Circle, bringing craveable eats to the southwest corner of Central Park.

For anyone who’s ever schlepped to Brooklyn for a bao bun and a soft-serve moment, this is big. The new outpost will feature more than 25 vendors—though the exact lineup hasn’t dropped yet, expect the usual Smorgasburg formula: plenty of newcomers, cult-favorite regulars and dishes engineered to go viral.

Folks flock to this annual floral-filled exhibition at Macy’s Herald Square, where jaw-dropping arrangements are on display for two weeks. The theme for this year's installment is "Homegrown," part of the nationwide celebration of America's 250th birthday, "expressed through flowers, fiber and timeless handicrafts," per Macy's.

Through Sunday, May 10, explore greenhouse-inspired installations, breathtaking bloom-filled planters, decorative stained-glass garden panels, sculptural fabric birds, yarn-wrapped trees and more in the immersive spring spectacle. 

Forget everything you know about a night at the theater. On Tuesday, May 19, the cult Japanese women’s pro-wrestling league Sukeban is returning to New York City, and they're ready to rumble with enough neon, leather and high-flying chaos to rattle the rafters of the iconic Hammerstein Ballroom.

Named after the rebellious girl gangs of ‘60s and ‘70s Japan, Sukeban is a mix of punk, high-fashion and world-class martial arts in one electric event. It’s a wildly theatrical spectacle that has already conquered London, Berlin and TikTok—and now, it’s New York’s turn for the most ambitious production yet.

The five-match card is a heavy-hitting lineup of 22 wrestlers from Tokyo’s most notorious stables: the Harajuku Stars, Dangerous Liaisons,  Cherry Bomb Girls, Tokyo Toys and Vandals. There's an All-Star Tag Team match, and the stakes are high for the main event when reigning champ Ichigo Sayaka defends her belt against her bitter rival, Queen of Hearts in the Sukeban World Championship Match. The night will also include surprise cameos, performances and mind-bending visuals from the Tokyo creative unit Margt.

It's raining elephants! Mark your calendars because the ninth annual Dumbo Drop is set for Friday, May 29 when thousands of tiny elephants will fall from the sky during one of the neighborhood's most beloved events.

For one night only, the rooftops lining Washington Street, the most Instagrammed block in the borough, will become launchpads for a fleet of parachuting toy elephants. At 5pm and again at 7pm, thousands of these tiny, trunked treasures will float gracefully down to the car-free streets below. Each year's drop features custom-designed parachutes by a local artist, with Christian Vera assuming the duties for 2026.

The drop also doubles as a block party you won't want to miss, with music, food and plenty of fun. You can catch a live set by The Jelly, join a flash mob dance party or get your hands dirty with crafts from Creatively Wild. If all that "elephant watching" works up an appetite, "Restaurant Row" will be serving up local tastes for just $7.

New York City’s newest coastal getaway is just a ferry ride away. On May 9, just in time for outdoor dining season, Smorgasburg is channeling its open-air market model into a full scale restaurant concept. Six Coasts aims to be a destination restaurant with chef-driven cuisine and creative cocktails in an energetic, communal atmosphere.

Located on Soissons Landing with million-dollar views of the Lower Manhattan skyline, Six Coasts is a culinary road trip (or sailing trip, rather) from Nova Scotia to Bahia. It's a Pan-American seafood spot that celebrates coastal cuisine with a vibe that's as breezy as the harbor air.

At the helm is the powerhouse Chef Scotley Innis (of Hell’s Kitchen and Chopped fame). Known for his bold Caribbean roots, Innis is bringing some heat to the waterfront. The menu is a vibrant love letter to the Americas, featuring showstoppers like Escovitch Whole Fried Snapper with scotch bonnet pickled onions and Snapper Tiradito in a soursop leche de tigre. The Duck Chicharrón and Blue Crab & Plantain Croquettes are destined to become legends for both palates and pics.

Starting May 14, Rockefeller Center is turning its famous rink into an open-air Broadway stage with a new free concert series called “Road to Broadway.” Every Thursday at noon through June 4, cast members from some of the biggest shows in town will perform live at The Rink at Rockefeller Center, meaning you can potentially hear “Defying Gravity” while clutching a desk salad in Midtown.

The month-long series is being curated by Playbill and will host a stacked lineup. The kickoff on May 14 features performances from Wicked, Hadestown and Chicago. On May 21, expect appearances from SIX: The Musical, & Juliet, Death Becomes Her and Just in Time. Then on May 28, the spotlight shifts to Operation Mincemeat, The Great Gatsby and Maybe Happy Ending. The finale on June 4 goes especially hard, with performances from MJ: The Musical, The Outsiders, The Book of Mormon and Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

And yes, this is actually free. Standing-room viewing will be available around the rink, while people who shop or dine at Rockefeller Center can use a receipt for access to viewing areas on the rink balconies. If you’re looking to upgrade the experience, Rockefeller Center is also encouraging visitors to reserve terrace seating at Jupiter or NARO.

No one needs an excuse, but if you've ever needed a reason to eat cheesecake every day for a month, Breads Bakery just handed you one. The beloved NYC bakery is bringing back its annual Cheesecake May from May 1–31, and this year’s lineup will make it hard to settle for just one slice.

The month-long menu is a maximalist love letter to cream cheese in all its forms, whether folded into babka, piped into buns or baked into Basque-style rounds. Leading the charge is the Cheesecake Babka, a mash-up of two of the bakery’s signatures: its “Best of New York” babka swirled with classic cheesecake filling and finished with streusel. It’s joined by bite-sized Cheesecake Rugelach, which get a brûléed crunch on top, and a Basque Cheesecake available whole or by the slice, with that signature caramelized exterior giving way to a custardy center.

There are also a few options designed for peak spring. The Strawberry Cheesecake Bun piles jam and fresh strawberries onto a brioche base, while the Strawberry Matcha Cheesecake leans into the Basque style, blending matcha into the batter and topping it with berries. For something more portable, the Guava Cheesecake Jar layers silky filling with jam and crumble, essentially turning dessert into an on-the-run situation.

A new exhibition on the Upper East Side brings British photographer Giles Duley's work to a most incongruous location this spring. From May 12–24, "Distortion/Memory/Resilience/"—Duley's first New York retrospective—invites the public into a penthouse at Sutton Tower to view his exploration of the human cost of war.

Held high above the East River in one of Manhattan’s newest luxury residential buildings, the show reframes more than two decades of Duley’s work in a 4,600-square-foot penthouse where the setting becomes part of the contrast. The exhibition’s title reflects that evolution. Rather than presenting war as a series of isolated events, Distortion/Memory/Resilience/ draws connections across geography and time, emphasizing what Duley sees as a shared human thread running through conflict. The images focus less on destruction and more on the people navigating its aftermath.

Presented by JVP Development and Gamma Real Estate, the show is structured as a nontraditional retrospective, described as a “reimagining” that offers a new perspective on 20 years of Duley's work. In addition to his photographs, the exhibition will also include a recreated child’s room from a conflict zone and a camera obscura that projects the NYC skyline upside down into a domestic space

The Pilecki Institute has officially opened its New York headquarters at 92 Greenwich Street, establishing itself as both a research center and a public-facing arts hub focused on Central and Eastern Europe. Its debut exhibition, “Modern Freedom,” opens May 19 and runs through August 31, bringing together a wide roster of artists from across the region.

If that geography feels broad, that’s the idea. The show draws on work from Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and beyond, using contemporary art to explore how identity is shaped (and reshaped) under pressure. The framing focuses on three thematic threads: memory, tremor and freedom and pieces in the exhibition span sculpture, painting, film and installation. Expect work that grapples directly with political upheaval, generational trauma and the long tail of 20th-century regimes, but filtered through a distinctly modern lens.

The Museum of Sex is going deeper than usual this spring. Opened April 23, "The Life Force: Portraits from the Amparo & Manuel Foundation" brings a disarming meditation on the body to the NoMad space, marking the first time the Mexico City-based collection has been shown in the United States.

Comprised of 45 works across painting, sculpture, drawing and photography, the exhibition explores what it means to be alive inside a body that is, by definition, fragile. That tension is framed through the psychoanalytic pairing of Eros and Thanatos, the life instinct and the death drive, and how the sex drive thrives even in the face of death. 

Artists including Amoako Boafo, Tracey Emin and Bert Stern anchor the show, joined by voices like Oh de Laval that push the conversation toward the surreal and psychological. The throughline is not style but a shared preoccupation with vulnerability, desire and the uneasiness of being seen.

Grab your paddles, pickleball fans, because the popular sport is back in Central Park all spring and summer long. CityPickle is now open at the park's Wollman Rink through the early fall. 

This is the fourth 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. 

In the four years since it opened, Little Island has become one of New York's primo warm-weather destinations: an elevated oasis of trees and knolls and winding paths that rises—as though suspended on a bed of coupe cocktail glasses—above Pier 55 in the Hudson, just west of the Meatpacking District. In the same brief period, it has established itself as one of the city's most vital sources of low-cost high culture in the summer. 

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. Performances have been part of Little Island's mission from the start, but the offerings have gotten more and more ambitious. Last year, the park upped its game to present a sold-out season of world premieres.

Building on that success, Little Island's 2025 season includes many new works by major artists. 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.  

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.

Grab your tickets now to see NYC in action!

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. This season features movies that will appeal to ‘90s kids, Pride films, Wine Wednesdays and lots more when the 2026 calendar opens in May. Here’s the full list of what’s coming to Rooftop Cinema Club’s big screen.

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.

You can do better than a dozen carnations for Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 11) this year to show Mom how much you love her and how well you know her.

After all, she brought you into the world, so the least you can do is show your appreciation. Check out this list of things to do on Mother’s Day including the best restaurants in NYC to take her to, the best shops in NYC for gifts, spas in NYC for a relaxing day, flower shops for the perfect bouquet—basically, how to spoil the most important lady you know.

Need a laugh? The Second City—the renowned comedy club with locations in Chicago and Toronto—is now open in Brooklyn, and you will definitely laugh out loud there. 

Some of the funniest names in comedy got their start at Second City. Just a few Second City alumni include: Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Amber Ruffin, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Aidy Bryant. You might just see the next comedy star on this stage.

The venue offers sketch shows and improv performances, along with a great restaurant and no drink minimums in a beautiful venue. Tickets start at $39.

Every year on Memorial Day, NYC kicks off the start to summer with tons of events. Memorial Day isn’t just about day-drinking and savoring the long weekend—it’s also about honoring the men and women who have died while serving in our armed forces.

So before you chow down on the best BBQ in the city and line up for the best Memorial Day sample sales, remember the sacrifices made for the red, white and blue.

At last, night market season has arrived. 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.