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Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Blog

Cel­e­brate sum­mer­time this Labor Day week­end on GI

Aug 28, 2019 10:57 am

Sum­mer may be wind­ing down, but there’s no short­age of things to do, see, taste and expe­ri­ence on Gov­er­nors Island as the sea­son comes to a close. This Labor Day week­end is packed with all sorts of spe­cial events, brand new free pro­grams and sum­mer­time vibes all week­end long. And don’t miss your chance to stay out late with us — we’re open until 10 PM on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day for the last two late nights of the sea­son. Read on to see every­thing hap­pen­ing on our shore this weekend. 

We’re mak­ing it a breeze to ship out this week­end, with Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn fer­ries run­ning on a week­end sched­ule on Labor Day, giv­ing you plen­ty of chances to take a quick ride across the har­bor to GI. Don’t for­get that fer­ries are free before noon on week­ends! NYC Fer­ry will also run their Gov­er­nors Island route from Wall St./Pier 11 all week­end, includ­ing Monday.

Japan Per­form­ing Arts, Inc. kicks things off on Fri­day evening with the first per­for­mance of their Bön Odori Fes­ti­val that brings tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese sum­mer dances to GI. See dances on Out­look Hill 7:30 – 9 PM on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, plus a whole day of Japan­ese games, food, activ­i­ties and more in Nolan Park, 12 – 8 PM on Saturday. 

The 10th annu­al NYC Uni­cy­cle Fes­ti­val keeps things rolling on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day 12 – 5 PM with games, work­shops and com­pe­ti­tions cel­e­brat­ing all things uni­cy­cle. Vet­er­an rid­ers can show off their tal­ents and test their skills, while new­com­ers can learn how to ride and take in spec­tac­u­lar performances! 

New arts and cul­ture pro­grams on Colonels Row open their doors this week­end. 4heads’ sprawl­ing annu­al art show, Por­tal, dis­plays a stag­ger­ing line­up of new works across sev­en his­toric hous­es every week­end in Sep­tem­ber. They’ll mark their first day on Sat­ur­day with a pub­lic open­ing recep­tion, 6 – 9 PM. 

Free arts and per­for­mance pro­grams will open in Colonels Row start­ing on Sat­ur­day, includ­ing the diverse the­atri­cal per­for­mances of Dys­func­tion­al Col­lec­tive, a soft open­ing of Exquis­ite Corpse Com­pa­ny 5 – 9 PM on Sat­ur­day night, holo­graph­ic art all week­end at the Holo­Cen­ter, and Linked Dance The­atre bring­ing you a week­end of dance and art exhi­bi­tions with an open­ing recep­tion on Sun­day, 3:30 – 6 PM. 

More art, cul­ture and learn­ing can be found in Nolan Park dur­ing the hous­es’ nor­mal week­end hours on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, 11 AM‑5 PM. Our fan­tas­tic food and bev­er­age ven­dors will also be open for their usu­al week­end hours. 

Read on for a list of all pro­grams, attrac­tions and ven­dors that will be open on Labor Day (Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 2). See you on the Island! 

Open on Labor Day:

Nolan Park
Tri­an­gle Arts
Har­vest­works
West Harlem Art Fund
Children’s Muse­um of the Arts Free Arts Island Out­post
NYC Audubon
play:groundNYC’s The Yard

Colonels Row
The Holo­Cen­ter
Linked Dance The­ater
Dys­func­tion­al Collective

Urban Farm
GrowNYC

Ven­dors
Island Oys­ter
Taco Vista
Mak­i­na Café
Lit­tle Eva’s
Joe Cof­fee
Per­ros Y Vainas 

Attrac­tions
Blaz­ing Sad­dles
Gov­er­nors Island Nation­al Mon­u­ment (Fort Jay and Cas­tle Williams)

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