Your weekend plans begin here, with a couple of dozen FREE and cheap things to do this first full weekend of Spring, including the eagerly awaited annual Architectural Digest Design Show.
As always, everything NYC on the Cheap suggests is $25 or less, and most things are FREE, so you can enjoy more NYC for less money.
So much to see and do and so little time.
Let’s hope the weather cooperates with outdoor events.
And if it doesn’t, here are some rainy and snowy day activities in NYC, besides re-arranging your sock drawer.
Know before you go:
Weekend street and bridge closures
March 22-24
Architectural Digest Design Show
It’s the largest and most prestigious show of its kind.
Shop the latest in furniture, accessories, lighting, art, kitchen, bath, and building products from more than 400 leading design brands and some of the nation’s best independent designers, and get inspiration for your home, apartment, or outdoor projects.
Get half price tickets, just $17.50
The price includes a one-year digital subscription to the magazine.
March 23 and 24
NYC Coffee & Tea Festival
Whether you drink them hot or iced, with sugar or cream, if coffee and/or tea are your daily essentials, sip and sample at the 13th Annual NYC Coffee & Tea Festival with discount tickets that are almost half off the walk-up price of $25 admission.
More than 100 exhibitors are on hand to pour samples of their finest brews, and introduce you to new award-winning products, plus samples of sweet and savory foods that complement coffee and tea.
The festival has been featured on the Food Network’s hit show Unwrapped and designed to appeal to both consumers and people in the restaurant and coffee shop business. It’s at the Brooklyn Expo Center.
Click here for $15 discount tickets.
Starting Sunday, March 24
Macys Flower Show
The annual Macy’s Flower Show fills the Herald Square flagship store with some 5,000 colorful blooms and plants, plus daily events throughout the store, including special displays and programs for kids.
The theme of this year’s show is outer space, including seven fashion pods featuring looks designed by students of FIT, the world-famous fashion design school here in New York City. They were challenged to create original designs using the following themes: Shining Stars, Big Bang, Anti-Matter, Zero Gravity, Comet Couture, Lunar Landing, and Interstellar Explorer.
Journey to Paradisios will transport you into a multi-dimensional world of space, adventure and discovery through eccentric landscaped gardens that celebrate the wonder and mystery of the planet Paradisios, with colorful inhabitants, floating cities, alien technology, and whimsical plant life.
The 2019 Macy’s Flower Show is Sunday, March 24 through Sunday, April 7.
Everything is FREE, of course
Closing soon
Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York
Enjoy the exuberance and brilliance of dancer, choreographer, artist and poet – and native New Yorker – Jerome Robbins in this FREE exhibit celebrating the 100th year of his birth, and his hometown, where the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down, and the people ride in a hole in the ground, as we learned in On the Town.
Jerome Robbins was an inveterate observer, seeker, and creator. In diaries, drawings, watercolors, paintings, story scenarios, poems—and, especially, in dance—he reimagined the world around him. And New York dominated that world, where he was born one-hundred years ago and where he lived his entire adult life.
Ideas of New York have long inspired artists but often the city serves as a backdrop in an artwork rather than the basis for plot, theme, and meaning. Robbins put the city at the center of his artistic imaginings.
From Fancy Free—his breakout hit ballet in 1944—to the musical West Side Story on stage (1957) and screen (1961) and the ballets N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz (1958) and Glass Pieces (1983), Robbins explored the joys, struggles, grooves, routines, and aspirations of New York. And in recreating the city around him on stage, Robbins found a place for himself.
Voice of My City traces Robbins’ life and dances alongside the history of New York, inspiring viewers to see the city as both a muse and a home.
- Open through March 30th, 2019.
- New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Starting Sunday, March 24
Macys Flower Show
The annual Macy’s Flower Show fills the Herald Square flagship store with some 5,000 colorful blooms and plants, plus daily events throughout the store, including special displays and programs for kids.
The theme of this year’s show is outer space, including seven fashion pods featuring looks designed by students of FIT, the world-famous fashion design school here in New York City.
They were challenged to create original designs using the following themes: Shining Stars, Big Bang, Anti-Matter, Zero Gravity, Comet Couture, Lunar Landing, and Interstellar Explorer.
Journey to Paradisios will transport you into a multi-dimensional world of space, adventure and discovery through eccentric landscaped gardens that celebrate the wonder and mystery of the planet Paradisios, with colorful inhabitants, floating cities, alien technology, and whimsical plant life.
The 2019 Macy’s Flower Show is Sunday, March 24 through Sunday, April 7.
Things to do in NYC every Friday
Freebie Friday – FREE admission to NYC museums including MOMA. No passes or coupons needed. Just go.
FREE Friday morning admission to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, until Noon.
Get FREE admission to more than a dozen NYC museums with the IDNYC card. Enrollment is also FREE.
Freebie Friday: Family Fridays at MoMath – Solve puzzles, family-style, and learn how math affects everything, from music to space flight. 6:30pm, FREE The National Museum of Mathematics is at 11 E. 26th St.
Freebie Friday – Grand Central Neighborhood Tour. FREE every Friday at 12:30, docents from the Grand Central Partnership guide you through the history of the fabled Grand Central Terminal and some equally-fabled nearby landmarks including the Chrysler Building.
There are no tickets, no reservations. Just meet at Sculpture court at 120 Park Avenue (southwest corner of East 42nd Street). Tour is 90 minutes.
Things to do in NYC every Saturday
FREE Saturday admission at top NYC museums every Saturday all year includes the Jewish Museum
Things to do in NYC every Sunday
FREE Sunday admission at top NYC museums including Morgan Library and Museum.
FREE Flatiron Walking Tour – Join professional guides on a 90-minute journey through this vibrant neighborhood, viewing some of the City’s most notable landmarks, including the New York Life Insurance Building, the MetLife Clock Tower, the Appellate Courthouse and the famous Flatiron Building.
SEE ALSO
You now get FREE admission to more than 30 NYC museums and cultural institutions with the new CulturePass. It’s a new perk to use with your library card from the NYPL, Brooklyn Museum or Queens Museum systems.
The NYCOTC Free & Cheap Weekend Guide is $25 or less, with an occasional splurge because we deserve to treat ourselves once in a while.
NYC isn’t expensive when you know where to go and what to do, and we do. And we love to share.
- Unless a price is noted, our weekend list is FREE, but we usually remind you anyway.
- Unless otherwise noted, outdoor events are rain or shine, so let’s hope for shine.
- Street fairs are 11am to 6pm, unless otherwise noted.
Getting Around NYC – Know Before You go
FREE apps on subway track work and schedulng delays – Know what trains are bypassing what stations so you aren’t late for one of these free and cheap weekend events.
NYC official street closures website – Know what streets are closed when for street fairs, parades, political protests and more.
2018 NYC parking calendar – Know when you have to move your car, or not.
Where to eat at LaGuardia Airport – Top NYC restaurants and cafes are replacing fast food joints.
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Enjoy your free and cheap NYC weekend.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.