Things to do on a Sunday in New York

The Six Foot Platform immersive public art experiences are back in Dumbo for seven Saturdays from September 6 to October 18 on one of New York City's most iconic blocks, the car-free Washington Street.

Seven Brooklyn based artists will present experimental art and performances on a six foot by six foot platform from 12pm to 6pm. Upcoming events include "Bark Tarot," an audience-participatory installation where pieces of bark incorporate a cut-out word from newspapers distributed in New York; "Face to Face Toilets (Revisited)," a public performance and sculptural installation exploring intimacy, vulnerability and absurdity in shared spaces; and "Dumbo Dreams," which invites the public to play with three giant, hand-painted fortune tellers. 

We could all use a big plate of pasta chased with a cannoli right about now. The Feast of San Gennaro is here to meet those needs with its annual festival featuring parades, live music and of course, glorious foods.

Festivities run from September 11-21, 2025 in Little Italy. Activities include the Blessing of the Stands, the Grand Procession Procession, and a Solemn High Mass celebrating the patron Saint of Naples. Here's the full events calendar.

As New York City's largest free literary festival, this annual celebration brings together hundreds of spectacular writers from across the globe for more than a week of talks and shopping to satisfy the borough's brainiacs. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Activities run September 14-22 with writers in a variety of genres: international and local, for adult and young readers, working in fiction and nonfiction, poetry, prose, and graphic storytelling. Events are free, but you’ll definitely want to bring some money to buy some new books to take home.

Here's the full schedule.

One of the top things to do in New York this fall includes drinking some of the best beer in NYC during Oktoberfest. Take in the beautiful fall foliage while drinking at one of the best beer gardens and German eateries in New York City. 

This year’s events include weeks-long waterside parties, brewery bashes and boozy feasts—all with plenty of German (and local!) beer. Prost!

World-renowned artist and activist Ai Weiwei is set to unveil Camouflage, a monumental new installation on Roosevelt Island September 10-December 1 that marks both his return to New York and the launch of a new public art initiative: Art X Freedom.

Opening to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly, Camouflage will transform Four Freedoms Park into a contemplative sanctuary draped in netting. Visitors will be able to contribute handwritten reflections on freedom, tying them to the fabric of the work in a gesture of collective memory and resistance.

Most people associate the sari with its South Asian origin. The New York Historical adds another layer to the garment's story by unearthing how the sari—and those who wear it—made New York City its home in a new exhibit opening soon. "The New York Sari: A Journey Through Tradition, Fashion, and Identity" opens September 12 and runs through April 2026.

This exhibition traces the path of the sari from the Indian subcontinent to NYC, going from exotic object of trade to a tradition embraced by many communities. The sari holds many different identities; whether it be within consumer empires, dance and performance or explorations of gender and identity, museum officials explained. 

The Queens Craft Brigade hosts an exceptional community of makers exclusively from the borough of Queens. The independent, queer-owned market at Katch Astoria brings together talented makers exclusively from around the borough and has created monthly curated events featuring artwork, jewelry, fashion, crafts and more. This year marks the eigth year anniversary of QCB.

Here's the schedule for the rest of 2025:

— September 13: Queens Cat Brigade (cat-inspired gifts and more)
— October 25: Queens Witchcraft Brigade (Halloween costume contest and more)
— November 29: Small Business Saturday
— December 13: Holiday Market

On a cold winter day in 1921, artist Man Ray placed some of his glass equipment on top of an unexposed sheet of photographic paper he found among the prints in his developing tray. This "mistake" produced something the artist would later dub a "rayograph," and was essentially a photo taken without a camera. The works' transformative nature led the Dada poet Tristan Tzara to describe rayographs as capturing the moments "when objects dream," and you can see those pieces on display at The Met from September 14 until February 2026.

Drawing from the collections of The Met and more than 50 U.S. and international lenders, the presentation will include more than 60 rayographs and 100 paintings, objects, prints, drawings, films and photographs to highlight the central role of the rayograph in Man Ray’s  practice.

The Phantom of the Opera has ended its 35-year Broadway run, but you can't keep a masked man down for long. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical—adapted by the composer and Richard Stilgoe from Gaston Leroux's 1910 horror novel—is already somehow here again, and in a surprising new form. It's now an immersive experience, à la Sleep No More, in which audiences are led en masque through multiple locations in a complex designed to evoke the 19th-century Paris Opera House where soprano Christine Daaé is tutored and stalked by a serial killer who lives in the basement.

Six groups of 60 spectators at a time enter at staggered 15-minute intervals; each group gets its own Phantom and Christine, but the other roles are played by one to four actors each; to help sustain the atmosphere, audience members must wear black, white or silver cocktail or formal attire—and, hopefully, comfortable shoes. (Masks are provided for those who do not bring their own.) 

The British conjurer Jamie Allan (iMagician), a Houdini aficionado who has made his reputation by infusing newfangled technology and emotionally charged storyelling into old-school tricks, appears at New World Stages for a limited run. This latest showcase is directed by Jonathan Goodwin and co-created with Allan's longtime partner in illusions, Tommy Bond.