Are people who FaceTime while walking down the street literally insane?

Smorgasburg returned the first weekend of April for its 16th season, bringing back more than 70 food vendors with one of the most globally diverse lineups the market has seen yet.

This year’s edition of the beloved open-air food market features 74 vendors across its two flagship locations (at Marsha P. Johnson State Park in Williamsburg, and at Breeze Hill in Prospect Park) this year. That includes 22 newcomers serving everything from Korean shaved ice and Fuzhounese dumplings to Mexico City-style tacos and Colombian grilled meats. 

Both markets will run weekly from 11 am to 6 pm through October.

Back to spotlight emerging, boundary-pushing new voices in cinema, the 55th annual New Directors/New Films festival will take over Lincoln Center from April 8 to 19. "With a focus on innovative cinema that sets the stage for the future of film," the 2026 lineup will screen 24 feature-length films and 10 shorts, including festival winners and favorites from Cannes, Sundance, Venice and more. Screenings will be held at FLC’s Walter Reade Theater and MoMA’s Titus theaters, and many of them will include post-movie Q&As with the filmmakers themselves. See the full schedule here.

The 2026 Artexpo New York marks the annual event's 49th installment, returning to Pier 36 from April 9 to 12. Redwood Art Group has assembled another killer lineup of more than 200 artists and exhibitors, with an emphasis on site-specific projects. Meanwhile, the Discoveries Collection, a selection of affordable pieces (priced at $3,000 or less), offers visitors a curated look at the amazing discoveries throughout the fair. For the full schedule of exhibitors, click here.

If you can’t make it to Augusta, New York is getting the next best thing—minus the azaleas, plus a ShackBurger. For four days this month, IBM will turn Madison Square Park into an immersive viewing hub for the Masters Tournament, complete with live broadcasts, an AI-powered golf simulator and a menu centered around golf’s most tradition-bound events.

Dubbed “Masters at Madison Square Park,” the pop-up will run from Thursday, April 9, through Sunday, April 12. Coverage will start as early as 7:30 am on opening day, with the space staying active through the final round on Sunday evening.

The biggest draw (beyond the obvious appeal of watching one of golf’s most iconic tournaments outdoors) is a simulator that lets visitors take a swing at a recreated hole from the Masters. The experience is powered by IBM’s WatsonX platform and will include “Hole Insights,” a data-heavy breakdown that mimics the analytics pros (and broadcasters) use during the tournament itself.

The Big Umbrella Festival at Lincoln Center returns with another year of programming aimed at neurodiverse audiences of all ages, from babies to adults. From immersive productions that take audiences on a journey to Antarctica to an ASL Baby Slam aimed at promoting language acquisition, the festival is teeming with events that welcome audiences across the Lincoln Center campus from April 10 through 26. Most shows are pay-what-you-wish, so families can feel free to map out their own singular experience.  

New York theater fans, clear your calendars—and maybe your tear ducts? Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler are teaming up for a strictly limited concert staging of The Last Five Years, landing at Radio City Music Hall on April 6 and 7 as part of the show’s 25th anniversary celebrations. 

If you somehow missed it over the past two decades (or have simply been emotionally recovering), The Last Five Years charts the rise and fall of a five-year relationship between novelist Jamie Wellerstein and actress Cathy Hiatt, told in a famously brain-bending structure where Jamie moves forward in time as Cathy moves backward. First staged in 2001 before running off-Broadway the following year, the show has become a rite of passage for musical-theater obsessives, spawning revivals, a 2014 film adaptation and last year’s Broadway debut.

This concert version emphasizes the show’s intimacy, but also scales it up for two of the country’s biggest stages. Platt, who won a Tony for Dear Evan Hansen and most recently appeared in Parade, brings both Broadway pedigree and pop-star presence. Zegler arrives fresh off acclaimed stage turns in Romeo + Juliet and Evita, plus boasts a film resume that includes West Side Story and The Hunger Games franchise.

Jeremy Pinsly and his wife-slash-business partner Kayla Pinsly are officially debuting their new Greenpoint Comedy Club (66 Greenpoint Ave.) with an opening weekend celebration set for April 10 and 11 featuring comedy acts, music, food and more. The opening night performance on April 10 (featuring Alison Leiby, Usama Siddiquee, John F O'Donnell, Napoleon Emill and special guests) is sold out, but tickets are available for the April 11 showcase, featuring Daniel Simonsen, Jay Jurden, Rachel Williams and more. Go for the comedy, stay for the bar and communal vibes.

If your spring calendar is still looking a little… indoorsy so far, here’s a quick fix: take your movie night to the roof.

Rooftop Cinema Club has returned to midtown with a lineup focused on crowd-pleasers and date-night classics with just enough nostalgia. The concept is simple but effective: open-air (well, technically enclosed and heated for spring), skyline views, wireless headphones and a rotating schedule of films.

April’s theme, “Don’t judge a book by its movie,” brings a literary twist to the programming, with adaptations like Pride & Prejudice, The Great Gatsby (2013) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s anchoring the schedule. But if you’re less into period drama and more into emotional chaos or blockbuster escapism, there’s plenty of that too—The Notebook, Crazy Rich Asians and The Hunger Games are also in the lineup.

The cinema sits on the Skylawn rooftop of the Embassy Suites on West 37th Street, with views that stretch across midtown, including a peek at the Empire State Building if you time it right. It’s fully enclosed and heated for spring, so there’s no gambling with the weather and the whole thing is designed to feel more like a low-key lounge than a typical theater.

Roving pop-up FAD Market (Fashion, Art and Design, get it?) comes to Dumbo's Empire Stores (55 Water St.) on April 11 and 12 to kick off its 2026 season. The two-day Brooklyn Makes market will feature over 35 Kings County artisans and designers, including curated selections of handmade goods and artisanal foods from vendors based throughout the borough. The market runs 11am-6pm both days, offering shoppers plenty of opportunities to browse, buy and get to know their local makers.

Timed to the United States’ 250th anniversary, the American Folk Art Museum's Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States exhibition explores how vernacular art has shaped national identity. Using the museum’s collection, the show delves into the meanings of “folk,” “nation” and “patriotism” at the 2 Lincoln Square gallery. It offers a thought-provoking look at who is represented in American stories and how those stories change. The show runs April 10–September 13, then reopens October 8 and runs through February 28, 2027.