• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Advertise
  • Contact our Team
  • In the News
  • For NYC Residents
    • NYC Free Parking Calendar 2020
    • ID NYC Card for Free Museum Admission
    • Where to Donate Goods or Volunteer

NYC on the Cheap

Get More New York City for Less Money

  • Aways
    Free
    • Best FREE Things to Do in New York City
    • FREE Museum Admission by Borough
    • FREE Museum Admission by Day of Week
    • NYC Museums With No Admission Fee Ever
    • FREE Tickets to Late Night TV Shows
    • FREE Tickets to Daytime TV Shows
  • Entertainment
    & the Arts
    • Family Fun
    • NYC Discount Tickets
    • Philadelphia Ticket Deals
    • Movies
    • NYC Free: Museum Admission by Day of Week
    • NYC Theater
  • Food & Drink
    Deals
    • Where to Eat in Times Square
    • Best Jewish delis for overstuffed sandwiches
    • All-You-Can-Eat Sushi Deals
    • Best NYC Lobster Restaurants
    • Best Happy Hours
    • Birthday Freebies: Restaurants
    • Daily Deals
  • Shopping
    in NYC
    • Ten Things for $1 in NYC
    • Scam Alert
    • Discounts for Seniors
    • Birthday Freebies: Retail Stores
    • Best Resale Shops
    • Cheapest Gas
  • Things
    to Do
    • Seasonal Events
    • Free & Cheap Weekend Events
    • NYC Historic Homes now Museums
    • Where to See Hamilton in NYC
    • NYC Theater
    • Carousels in All 5 Boros
    • 9/11 Memorial & Museum
    • Events in NYC Parks
    • Get Free Tickets to Late Night TV Shows
    • NYC Festivals
    • Getting Around
  • Family
    Fun
    • Best Musems for Kids in Manhattan
    • Carousels in all 5 Boroughs
  • Crisis
    Resources
  • Scam
    Alert
  • Getaways
    & Travel Deals
  • Free & Cheap
    Events
  • Best FREE Things to Do in NYC
  • NYC Sightseeing and Tours Discounts
  • Ticket Deals
  • Cheapest Gas Prices
  • For NYC Residents
You are here: Home / NYC Cheap Weekend / What to Do Free & Cheap This Weekend in NYC
← Radio City Christmas Show Discount Tickets
Best Pop-Up Holiday Crafts Markets in NYC →

What to Do Free & Cheap This Weekend in NYC

POSTED BY
Evelyn Kanter

best of new york_nyconthecheap.com

Your weekend plans begin here, with a couple of dozen FREE and cheap things to do this mid-November weekend, including the first of the Christmas holiday crafts markets, international film festivals and more.

We’re exhausted already, and the weekend hasn’t even started yet!

There’s so much to see and do in NYC and never enough time to see and do it all.

All events are FREE and family-friendly, unless otherwise noted.

The NYC on the Cheap motto is get more NYC for less money. 

Let’s hope the weather cooperates with outdoor events, but if it doesn’t, here are some rainy day activities in NYC, besides re-arranging your sock drawer.

nyc free

Know Before You Go

Be sure to check the street closures advisory so you are not stuck in traffic.

Official NYC Bridge and Street Closures weekly advisory

Official NYC 2019 parking calendar

Now Underway

Canstruction NYCCanstruction

This extraordinary annual design competition is also the most unique food charity in the world.

Canstruction, in the Atrium at Brookfield Place, challenges teams of architects, engineers, and contractors to build sculptures made entirely out of unopened cans of food. The large scale structures are placed on display and later donated to City Harvest for distribution to those in need.

Canstruction is FREE, but organizers request all visitors to bring a full can of healthy food (or several) to donate to City Harvest.  There is a large collection bin next to the Information Desk located on the second level.

It is best to enter through the doors at 230 Vesey Street where you will see the first of the structures.

  • FREE November 7-21 at Brookfield Place (formerly Winter Garden)

other israel film festivalOther Israel Film Festival

More than two dozen feature films and documentaries about life in Israel, including one about an award-winning Arab chef, another about the interdependence of the Israeli and Palestinean medical care, and another about a young Palestinean girl who lives in a refugee camp in Lebanon.

That’s why it’s called the Other Israel Film Festival, because it focuses on lesser-known aspects of life in the Mideast.

  • The festival is Nov. 14-21, with screenings in three locations – two in Manhattan and one in Downtown Brooklyn.  
  • Tickets are $15-$18, student tickets (with a valid ID) are $7.50
  • Click here for schedules, trailers and additional information.

What to do in NYC on Friday

Umami Burger free burgersFREE Hamburgers at Umani Burger

Umani Burger is celebrating its new menu additions by giving away FREE burgers and fries, one order per customer, plus the chance to win free burgers for a year.

This freebie is one day only, Friday, Nov. 15th, and only at the chain’s location at Hudson Eats in Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan, just steps from Canstruction.

What to do in NYC Friday through Sunday

things to do this weekend in new york cityAnime NYC

This three-day event showcases the best of Japanese pop culture. 

Anime NYC brings anime fans and publishers together for three days of unique exhibits, exclusive screenings, extensive panels, and appearances by some of the biggest creators in Japan, celebrating  Japanese animation, manga, and cosplay.

Anime NYC is powered by Crunchyroll and will feature Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Bandai Namco, Funimation, HIDIVE, Kinokuniya Bookstore, Kodansha Comics, Sentai Filmworks, SUNRISE, Tokyo Otaku Mode, Yen Press, Vertical, VIZ Media, and more.  If you don’t know what those are, you are not an Amine fan.

  • A three-day pass is $85.  One-day tickets are $60 for Friday or Sunday, and $75 for Saturday.
  • At the Javits Convention Center.  Click here for more information.

What to do in NYC on Saturday or Sunday

discount ticketsSalon du Chocolate

Nibble and sample your way through dozens of chocolatiers, artisans, pastry chefs, experts, and businesses throughout the world who have one thing in common: their passion for all things chocolate.

And when you are finished nibbling, do some shopping.  There must be a chocoholic on your holiday gift list

  • Get discount tickets here

What to do in NYC on Saturday

free and cheap things to do in new york city in octoberNative American Artworks Auction

The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers holds its our annual pre-holiday auction of handmade Native American items, including jewelry, leather goods, baskets, rattles, clothing and blankets.

It’s a great opportunity to get well-priced, one-of-a-kind gifts, and you’ll be supporting Native American education in the bargain.

All proceeds from this auction are used for the Thunderbird American Indian Scholarship Fund, which has awarded over 500 grants for the college education of Native Americans nationwide.
 
The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are a group of Native Americans from various tribes who live and work in New York City and the Tri-State area, and perform regularly at locations such as the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan.
  • Saturday, 8pm to around 10pm   at The American Indian Community House, 39 Eldridge Street (4th floor), in Manhattan (just north of Canal Street).  
  • Additional information at ThunderbirdAmericanIndianDancers.org. 

Additional special holiday crafts markets on Saturday:

Hollyberry Craft Fair 

  • 10am-4pm, Park Slope United Methodist Church, 410 6th Ave.   
  • https://www.parkslopeumc.net/events

The Market at Brooklyn Museum

  • 11am-6pm 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn 
  • https://www.brooklynmuseum.org

 

Best Museum Exhibits for Kids

Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter

This popular display is back at the American Museum of Natural History for its 22nd season with more than 500 butterflies fluttering among colorful tropical flowers and lush green vegetation.

The butterflies are from farms in Florida, Costa Rica, Kenya, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, and Australia.

Beyond being just beautiful, butterflies are important harbingers of environmental change, and the exhibit includes an educational component about the roles butterflies play in ecosystems and the importance of protecting them.

  • At AMNH through May 2020
  • FREE with museum admission

what to do with kids in new york city this weekendArt of the Brick

Experience the world’s largest display of LEGO® art.

Artist Nathan Sawaya created more than 100 pieces for this exhibition using only LEGO bricks. The collection features original pieces, as well as re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art masterpieces, including the famous painting known as Scream.

More than one million LEGO bricks were used to create Sawaya’s sculptures.

In addition to the LEGO artworks on display, there are activity stations where kids of all ages can create and design their own.

  • Art & Architecture – Recreate famous building, bridges and structures using LEGO bricks.
  • Hidden Hands – Build a mystery object inside a covered box using only your sense of touch.
  • Assistive Devices – Design a tool that will allow you to pick up an object on a post through a series of various sized windows.
  • Describe It – Build a simple object out of view and describes the object to your friend. Then, see if your friend can build the same object based only on the description.
  • Six Bricks – Find out how many different things you can build using only six LEGO Duplo bricks.
  • LEGO Drag Race – Build a LEGO brick car and test it out on ramps of different inclines.
  • Tilt Maze – Rearrange straight LEGO “bar” bricks to create a maze for a wooden ball to navigate through on a tilt-table.
  • LEGO Music Box – Create your own unique song using a special LEGO baseplate. On the baseplate, horizontal lines represent different “tracks,” and vertical columns represent the eight “beats.” Use different colored LEGO bricks as instruments or notes/pitches to create your song. Then put the visual representation of your song under a camera, where simple image processing algorithms will turn it into music.

Art of the Brick is at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadow Park.

  • $7 per person, plus NYSCI admission.
  • Take the 7 train to the 111th St. station.

See also

FREE museum admission every weekend

See next page for more

FREE things to do this weekend

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Posted by Evelyn Kanter on November 14, 2019 | Updated November 14, 2019 Filed Under: Film · NYC Cheap Weekend · NYC Free · NYC Museums

Reader Interactions

What do you think about this? We welcome your comments. Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Get Free Email Updates

Be the first to know about NYC free and cheap events, discounts and deals by signing up for our FREE enewsletter.

Latest News Trending Now

  • 101 FREE & Cheap Things to Do This Week Jan. 25-31
    101 FREE & Cheap Things to Do This Week Jan. 25-31
  • How to Get a FREE Covid Vaccination in NYC: Update
    How to Get a FREE Covid Vaccination in NYC: Update
  • Free and Cheap Events Calendar
    Free and Cheap Events Calendar
  • 51 Free, Cheap & Virtual Things to Do This Weekend
    51 Free, Cheap & Virtual Things to Do This Weekend
  • McDonald's Throwback Thursdays: 15-35 Cent Items
    McDonald's Throwback Thursdays: 15-35 Cent Items
  • Museums, Gardens & Zoos: What's Open in NYC & Nearby & How to Get Reservations
    Museums, Gardens & Zoos: What's Open in NYC & Nearby & How to Get Reservations
  • Cheapest Gas Prices in NYC
    Cheapest Gas Prices in NYC
  • Best FREE Holiday Light Shows in NYC
    Best FREE Holiday Light Shows in NYC
  • NYC Free: Document Shredding
    NYC Free: Document Shredding
  • NYC Update: What's Open, Cancelled, Postponed
    NYC Update: What's Open, Cancelled, Postponed

Search by Category

Footer

About NYC on the Cheap

NYC does not have to be expensive when you know where the deals and freebies are.

We’re here to help you save money on NYC restaurants, theater, museums, shopping, events and more, as we have been doing since 2010.

Get more NYC for less money with NYCOTC. That’s our motto and we’re sticking to it.

Contact us: info@nyconthecheap.com

Who We Are

Your chief guide is Evelyn Kanter, a lifelong New Yorker and award-winning professional journalist.

Evelyn Kanter is a former consumer reporter for WABC-TV Eyewitness News and WCBS Radio Newsradio 88, the author of several NYC travel guidebooks and mobile apps, and zillions of newspaper and magazine articles, including for the NY Times, NY Post, NY Daily News and New York Magazine. Nobody  can match those NYC credentials.

Disclosure

NYC on the Cheap has an affiliate relationship with several companies which offer discounts and deals on this site.  When you purchase from one of these advertiser links, we earn a small commission.

If you’d like to help keep NYCOTC in the business of helping you save money, this is a great way to do it. It’s a win-win because the direct links save you both time searching for great deals and money.

Best Seller: NYC Guidebook by Evelyn Kanter

100 Things to do in NYC Before You Die

© 2021 NYC on the Cheap. Living On The Cheap® and On the Cheap® are registered trademarks owned by Living On The Cheap Inc. Site design by Five J's Design.
All the stories on our site are protected by copyright and any unauthorized copying is strictly prohibited. Plus, it is just not nice.

Email subscription form header
Subscribe for free to NYC on the Cheap and never miss a free event or discount deal.
Our daily newsletter is the FREE. fast. and easy way to find out about New York City deals, discounts, free events, and more.
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.