Best Things To Do In New York City This Weekend
Among our picks for the best in eating, drinking, and merrymaking around NYC this weekend are a festival of plays, a festival of films, and a festival of dance. Read on for details. By Jessica Allen.
Cold schmold. FRIGID New York will warm you up on the coldest of cold days, by offering more than 150 performances by 30 independent theater companies over the course of three weeks. Now's your chance to see plays about being "bi, hung, fit . . . and married," hanging out with Satan, and imaging our favorite characters from the 1990s all grown up. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think, you'll applaud hard enough to generate much-need body heat. Wednesday, February 18, through Sunday, March 8, see schedule for details, tickets required.
For the 15th year, Film Comment Selects welcomes a variety of movies, including "the coming soon and the never-coming-back, the rare and the rediscovered, the unclassifiable and the underrated." The slate is curated by the magazine's editors, based on what they saw (and heard about) during various other festivals over the past year, including Voice Over, a movie from Chile about the dissolution of a decades-long marriage, and The Golden Era, "a fractured, modernist epic on the life of Manchurian essayist and novelist Xiao Hong" from China. Friday, February 20, through Thursday, March 5, see schedule for details, tickets required.
Beer Week begins with Opening Tap, a coordinated event at 100 destinations around town, all of whom will be pouring a rare beer. Other events range from the high-end Brewer's Choice, which lets attendees mingle with brewers, to the FOOD+ENTERPRISE Conference, "a social impact, mission-driven event dedicated to promoting understanding and collaboration amongst . . . farmers, entrepreneurs, consultants, funders, and investors—who aim to finance a better local food system." In other words, Beer Week isn't just about best buds and great suds. Friday, February 20, through Sunday, March 1, see schedule for details, tickets required.
Put on your dancing shoes, and head to the Brooklyn Salsa Extravaganza. Hosted by Balmir Latin Studio, Salsa Studio Dance Studio, and Latin Fever Dance Studio, the fifth annual event celebrates this exciting, enthusiastic, and entwining dance. Multiple DJs plus two live bands will be on hand to get the crowd in the mood. It's not called "NYC's most elegant salsa night of the year" for nothing, so by all means dress to impress and leave your shyness at the door. Friday, February 20, 9 pm to 2:30 am, $20, tickets required.
The 16th annual Lunar New Year Celebration and Parade welcomes the Year of the Goat this weekend. One of the biggest lunar new year celebrations around, this super-popular event features floats, traditional lion and dragon dances, costumes, food, and crowds. Find a spot along the route: it begins at Canal and Mott, then heads to Chatham Square, turns down East Broadway, and moseys along Eldridge to Grand at Forsyth. Sunday, February 22, 1 pm, free.
