Best things to do in spring in NYC

Revel in forthcoming warm weather at the annual Macy’s Flower Show. NYC will be budding with blooms all over, but nothing beats roaming the sweet-smelling foliage that suddenly appears at one of the city’s best department stores: Macy’s Herald Square.

This year's theme hasn't been announced yet, but Macy's says the show will transform the store's main floor, balcony and windows. Expect "a whimsical oasis featuring the beauty and fragrance of spring as thousands of plants, flowers and trees bloom on the iconic store's main floor," Macy's officials said in a press release.

The Flower Show runs from Sunday, April 27 to Sunday May 11, 2025. 

The Easter Bonnet Parade & Festival is one of the highlights of Easter in NYC.

This parade is all about the hats—lavishly decorated, from the exquisite to the outlandish. Anyone is welcome to join, just show up near St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 10am on Easter Sunday to watch or saunter with the group up Fifth Avenue. The free tradition dates back to the 1870s, so you might even see some participants in period costumes. But the highlight is the elaborate bonnets, some of which are truly over-the-top.

If you want to participate, put on your creative thinking cap and get started on your work of chapeaux art ASAP. 

Vincent van Gogh's deep blue lilies, vibrant sunflowers, and golden wheat fields leap from the canvas as if they're living flowers. This spring, they will be. 

New York Botanical Garden is hosting a massive floral show called Van Gogh's Flowers, inspired by the genius of the iconic artist Vincent van Gogh. The art-infused flower show will encourage visitors to revel in the color and beauty of the natural world with botanical displays and large-scale art. You'll get a chance to roam through a breathtaking lawn adorned with vibrant, monumental sunflowers that sounds positively Instagram-worthy. Plus, see how the floral pros at NYBG used real flowers to make spectacular re-creations of the artist's museum-level masterpieces.

See it from May 24 through October 26, 2025.

Following its 2020 closure, the Frick Collection will officially reopen on April 17 inside its historic Gilded Age mansion at 1 East 70th Street by Fifth Avenue. When it reopens, visitors will get to experience even more of the museum's extensive collection by stepping inside restored spaces on the first floor while also walking around a new roster of galleries on the mansion's second floor, open to the public for the very first time.

According to The Frick, the second floor used to be the Frick family’s private living quarters, but later became staff meeting rooms and administrative offices. So yes, you’ll be able to walk into the original bedroom of Henry Clay Frick.

Carreau Club, the nation’s first pétanque bar, offers indoor and outdoor space to get your game on while sipping a drink.

The venue at Brooklyn's Industry City makes for great night out with a full bar, craft beer, wine and cocktails, plus a small deli counter. For the uninitiated, pétanque (pronounced puh-TONK) is a bocce-ball style French boules sport gaining popularity in the U.S., starting here in NYC. 

The iconic summer music festival Governors Ball will return to Flushing Meadows Corona Park this summer with a major lineup. Headlining this year: Tyler, the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo, Hozier, Benson Boone, Feid, Glass Animals, Tyla, Mannequin Pussy, The Beaches, Snow Wife, and more. Here's the full lineup.

Tickets for the show, which runs Friday, June 6 through Sunday, June 8, are on sale here. 

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.

See the exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in Washington Heights from May 8–August 31, 2025. It's free to visit.

Treat your eyes 46 botanical drawings by the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), which will be on display for the first time at The Museum of Modern Art. "Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind Flowers" explores the artist's engagement with the natural world. Created during the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, this portfolio presents the wonders of Sweden's flora and showcases the artist's keen botanical eye.

Look for ways the artist combines abstraction with botanical drawing, like a sunflower paired with concentric circles or a narcissus crowned by a pinwheel of primary colors. Through these forms, af Klint seeks to reveal, in her words, "what stands behind the flowers," reflecting her belief that studying nature uncovers truths about the human condition.

The show will be on view from May 11–September 27, 2025, 

For the first time in two decades, the Met's Costume Institute is dedicating a show to menswear. "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" examines Black style from the 18th century to today through an exploration of the concept of dandyism. 

Superfine is organized into 12 sections, each representing a style characteristic such as ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability, heritage and more. Expect to see monumental sculptures, bespoke mannequin heads, paintings, prints, films, a photo essay, and, of course, incredible garments.

It's open from May 10 through October 26, 2025.

Watermark's Pink Pier has been given a cherry blossom-themed makeover. Celebrate all things pink and all things spring at the Spring Fling Cherry Blossom Festival at Watermark Pink Pier now through the end of April. 

For the first time, the 10,000-square-foot outdoor bar and restaurant at Pier 15 in NYC's Seaport District has been transformed into a breathtaking (and very Instagrammable) cherry blossom wonderland. Expect lush pink blooms, vibrant floral installations, and sweeping views of the Brooklyn skyline, along with themed food and drinks. Prices range from $13-$550, with some ticket prices including food.

The Spring Fling Cherry Blossom Festival is presented in partnership with Bucketlisters. 

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.

Vendors hail from New York City, as well as other states and other countries. Past festivals have featured foods like takoyaki, ramen, matcha sweets, yakisoba, karaage, okonomiyaki and lots more. 

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.  

NYC isn’t the greenest city, but New York sure knows how to give Mother Nature a proper party and some much-needed recognition.

The best Earth Day events in NYC including volunteering to clean up parks in NYC or beaches to ensure they stay litter-free. There are also plenty of opportunities to enjoy themed music, sustainable art and natural beauty. Get ready to do some tree hugging and check out fun things to do outside and inside.

On a typical tour of Manhattan, the big tourist attractions—Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park—get all the attention. But on these new walking tours by a local author, you'll see fascinating historical sites that you won't find in a typical guidebook. 

K. Krombie's Purefinder tours, "Death in New York," "The Psychiatric History of New York" and "Hell Gate," explore the city's darker side through meticulously researched and theatrically presented historical narratives.

Each tour covers about 2.5 miles in about two-and-a-half hours. “Death in New York” and “The Psychiatric History of New York” are offered weekly, while “Hell Gate” is offered twice per month. Tours cost $32-$34 per person; you can book one here.

As the Brooklyn Museum reaches a landmark birthday, it's celebrating with an exhibit called "Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200." The show is broken into three chapters featuring works that span time, geography and medium while highlighting Brooklyn's artistic communities.

The first chapter—Brooklyn Made—pays homage to the borough's artists and designers from the seventeenth century to today. This section features everything from a pair of Delaware Lenape youth moccasins to contemporary pieces by Duke Riley. The next section, titled Building the Museum and Its Collection features the history of the museum's famed building and explores how its collection has grown. Finally, Gifts of Art in Honor of the 200th showcases newly gifted pieces, including works by Robert Frank, Coco Fusco, Antony Gormley, Julie Mehretu, and Alex Katz.

The show will run for nearly a full year, from February 28, 2025–February 22, 2026.

For neurodiverse audiences, the world of performing arts is not always a welcoming place. So in its seventh annual Big Umbrella Festival, Lincoln Center is inviting that world to come to them.

From April 4 through April 20, 2025, the arts complex will host companies from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Mexico and Peru in programs specially designed to entertain and engage with children, teens and adults with autism, sensory and communication disorders or learning disabilities. The festival's events cover a spectrum of theater, music, dance, comedy and visual art. Many of the events feature interactive and participatory elements.