Best Things To Do In New York City This Weekend
Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Look no further than our five picks for the best in eating, drinking, and merrymaking, including a movie festival, a wine festival, and a photo festival. By Jessica Allen.
New York owes much to the oyster, considered by many to be the quintessential NYC food. Oyster Week celebrates the bivalve with lectures, eating and drinking specials, food-and-wine pairings, regattas, parties, and all-around merriment. You'll also get to meet farmers and purveyors. Thursday, September 10, through Sunday, September 27, see schedule for details. (For those of you keeping track, Oyster Week does indeed last for far longer than one week.)
Photoville displays photos inside more than 60 repurposed shipping containers, a description that makes the extraordinary exhibit sound, well, a lot less extraordinary than it actually is. This is the city's largest annual photographic event, and it's full of worthwhile, mind-expanding shots. The photos, from around the world and taken by professionals, students, and amateurs alike, emphasize "visual storytelling." Thursday, September 10, through Sunday, September 20, see schedule for info about events, free.
The Coney Island Film Festival offers three days of movies, mayhem, and madcap entertainment, along with sun, sand, and surf. Benefiting Coney Island USA, a nonprofit arts organization, the 15th annual festival includes such films as Pas de Feu, The Ramens, and My Boyfriend Is a Blimp, each one as wacky and weird and wonderful as the neighborhood itself. Friday, September 18, through Sunday, September 20, see schedule for details, tickets required.
More fun than your average wine tasting, Wine Riot offers attendees temporary tattoos, live DJs, a photo booth, educational events, and, of course, the opportunity to taste. Indeed, 250 wines from around the world will be available for sampling, and vendors and vinters will be on hand to guide you through what you're drinking. Use the customized app to keep track of what you liked and what you loved. Friday, September 18, and Saturday, September 19, $65, tickets required.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Brooklyn Book Festival takes over Borough Hall and its plaza and transforms them into an epicenter of literary culture this weekend. The more than 100 scheduled events, panels, and signings feature such superstars of the pen/keyboard as Jessica Abel, Alexander Hemon, Amber Tamblyn, and Salman Rushdie. But it's also fun to walk around, checking out the various totes and tomes and bookmarks and stickers and beaming smiles on offer. Sunday, September 20, 10 am to 6 pm, free, see schedule for details.