Best Things To Do In New York City This Weekend
Among our picks for the best in eating, drinking, and merrymaking events this weekend are a film festival, an art festival, and a food festival. Go forth, celebrate, and have fun. By Jessica Allen.
As in past years, the 44th annual New Directors/New Films specializes in movies you might not have heard of, but should have. This year, the festival—a collaboration between the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center—includes features and shorts from around the world, from Ow, a "blackly comic indie whatsit a Japanese episode of The Twilight Zone," to The Tribe, a silent movie set in a school for the deaf. Wednesday, March 18, through Sunday, March 29, see schedule for details, tickets required.
"I Am #ArtHappy" goes the slogan for the Affordable Art Fair, which once again takes over the Metropolitan Pavilion for a weekend of, well, affordable art. Offering "an inspiring and friendly atmosphere in which you can find thousands of original paintings, prints, sculptures, and photographs . . . ranging from $100-$10,000, with more than half priced under $5,000," the Affordable Art Fair really does have something for everyone. Wednesday, March 25, through Sunday, March 29, $18, tickets required.
Food & Wine magazine has called Wine Riot "the most fun you can have at a wine tasting." The two-day event gives participants the chance to learn about and sample more than 250 wines from around the world. It's "two parts education and one part revolution." A free mobile app for the iPhone will help you remember what you liked. Free temporary tattoos and a photo booth too. Bottoms up! Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28, $60, tickets required.
With the repeal of Prohibition-era laws preventing the distillation of spirits within city limits, distillers have descended on New York, causing an enormous rise in the production of craft alcohol. The annual NYC Craft Distillers Festival lets you sample what's been cooking and fermenting, offering more than 60 tastes from 20-odd distilleries. The Bowery Hotel will be decked out like a 1920s-era speakeasy. Saturday, March 28, from 1 to 4 pm or from 7 to 10 pm, prices vary, tickets required.
A biannual publication, Cherry Bombe celebrates women and food for readers who "are passionate about food, aesthetics, and the world around them," and its second annual Jubilee does the same. April Bloomfield, Padma Lakshimi, Gail Simmons, and other journalists, chefs, writers, restaurateurs, and recipe developers will be on hand, talking about what it means to be a female foodie, among other issues and ideas. Sunday, March 29,9:30 am to 5:30 pm, $225, tickets required.
