It may have been dubbed the cruelest month, but clearly, T.S. Eliot never lived in New York. April in NYC is a time to celebrate, and it often feels like the whole city is in on it. Crocuses poke through the ground, and a sense of city-wide awakening brings along a tide of events and activities.
While there may still be a chilly day or two, the month of April ushers in longer days and brighter spirits. At Rockefeller Center, you’ll find plenty of events and programming — from art to rock and roll for kids (see our full calendar here). If you’re exploring the rest of the city, you’ll want to grab a flashy Easter bonnet or a train up to Yankees Stadium and indulge in the first glimpses of springtime.
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Top 5 Things to Do in New York City in April
1. The Easter Parade and Easter Bonnet Festival
After two years of online festivities, the tradition that stretches back to the 1870s will go live once more! On April 17, break out your Sunday best and head to Fifth Avenue for a spectacle unlike any other. Every Easter, a spontaneous parade open to all takes place in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. You may spot inverted ice cream cones and floral cornucopias, oversized top hats in pastel colors, cartons of eggs suspended aloft, and many other millinery confections, as participants don their most elaborate headwear. For those looking to see the colorful show, anyone can gather along the avenue between 49th and 57th Streets to watch the fanciful procession head north.
2. Earth Day
While urban living can sometimes feel removed from nature, life in the concrete jungle is also a reminder of how precious our green spaces are. Earth Day is a chance to both celebrate the earth and do our part to keep her clean. From beekeeping and block parties to park clean-ups and urban farm projects, New Yorkers can give back in a variety of ways this year. On April 21, a major festival in Union Square will include exhibitor booths of leading environmental groups and activists as well as an online event. At Rockefeller Center, the Flag Project will fly once more, this time in partnership with the Climate Museum and the United Nations Environment Programme. Through April 29, eco-friendly, biodegradable flags will be on display in honor of our environment and sustainable living.
3. Louise Bourgeois: Paintings at The Met
Louise Bourgeois: Paintings, which opens at The Met on April 12, will present the first-ever survey of the artist’s early paintings. Though Bourgeois is most famous for her large-scale sculptures, particularly her monumental spiders, this new exhibition will show an underappreciated and little-known element of her artistic oeuvre. It will look mainly at the French-American artist’s early work, created after her move to New York City and through the end of World War II. The paintings show an artist finding their voice, honing a style, and exploring certain motifs that would become central to her later works.
4. Opening Day at Yankee Stadium
Despite plenty of back and forth over MLB Opening Day amid lockout-related deadlines and delays, baseball is indeed back. The Bronx will be burning once again as the Yankees play their biggest rival during the season’s home opener. On April 7, 9, and 10, the Yanks will go up against the Boston Red Sox and hope to edge a win with that home team advantage. The game will be especially heated, as the Bronx Bombers will be looking to avenge their loss from the last game of the 2021 season, when the Red Sox won 6-2 to advance in the AL Division Series.
5. Cherry Blossom Season
Though their presence in the city is often fleeting, the advent of cherry blossoms throughout the five boroughs always generates a haze of spring fever. Stroll along Riverside Park’s Cherry Walk, a four-mile-long path that stretches from 72nd to 158th street, or follow this map of Central Park to see where flowering trees can be found. Across the river, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden may be forgoing its annual Sakura Matsuri, but the Cherry Esplanade will still be open to visitors. In the Bronx, avid fans can track the flowering status of trees using the New York Botanical Garden’s online cherry tracker. In Queens, the Lewis Latimer House in Flushing, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and Queens Botanical Gardens all boast stunning collections of cherry trees. Not to be outdone, Staten Island’s Silver Lake Pond and Snug Harbor Cultural Center have bright blooms to admire as well. At Snug Harbor, visitors can also experience the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, one of only two authentic Chinese gardens in the entire country.
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