Blog

Top Things To Do Open­ing Week

Apr 26, 2017 3:26 pm

We’re offi­cial­ly open for Spring­time fun begin­ning May 1! From cycling to flower blos­som watch­ing, there’s some­thing for every­one. Here’s our guide for the best ways to expe­ri­ence the park, free exhibits open­ing in our his­toric hous­es and spring activ­i­ties for all ages dur­ing open­ing week on Gov­er­nors Island: 

Look for col­or­ful blooms in our park

This is the first year you’ll see spring in full bloom in our park. Keep an eye out for pur­ple flo­rals dur­ing open­ing week. The rain has brought out blos­soms on our mag­no­lias, cher­ries, crabap­ple trees and east­ern red buds. The park’s bril­liant yel­low daf­fodils, donat­ed by our friends at New York­ers for Parks just popped too! 

Stay late and watch the sun­set

Vis­i­tors rarely get to take in the views of the NYC sky­line and Lady Lib­er­ty from the Hills in the glow of the sun­set so you don’t want to miss this! Stay late with us on Fri­day, May 5 until 9PM for live music, food and sun­set view­ing at Liggett Ter­race and the Hills. 

Run, cycle and recre­ate in front of Lady Lib­er­ty

The Island is YOUR park, and an unfor­get­table place to play. Over 7 miles of car-free paths await. Bike rentals are avail­able from Blaz­ing Sad­dles and are FREE from 10AM-12PM, and you can event rent a bicy­cle built for 2 (or 6)! 

Con­quer NYC’s Longest Slide

If you did­n’t get to the Hills last sea­son, be sure to pay them a vis­it dur­ing open­ing week. Slide Hill is a must-do for kids (and the young at heart), with four slides of vary­ing lengths avail­able to try out. For the more adven­tur­ous, con­quer our long, wind­ing 57 foot slide, the longest in New York City! 

Learn about our Island bird friends

Vis­it the New York City Audubon Soci­ety’s sum­mer house in Nolan Park for free bird walks, activ­i­ties and book nooks for kids and info about birds and their nat­ur­al habi­tats. The best part? The house is open every day! 

Pre­view the Holo­Cen­ter’s sum­mer exhib­it

Push your sens­es with exper­i­men­tal visu­al tech­nol­o­gy and check out the Holo­Cen­ter Muse­um​’s first group show of the sea­son, ​‘Rip­ple Effect’. The Muse­um is open Fri­days, Sat­ur­days and Sun­days but don’t miss a spe­cial pre­view of the show from 2 – 4PM on Mon­day, May 1! 

Douse your­self in col­or and cel­e­brate diver­si­ty at Holi Hai

Mark your cal­en­dars for the first Sat­ur­day of the sea­son and join us for NYC Holi Hai Spring Col­or Fes­ti­val! Dance to the beat of live Indi­an drums, see dance per­for­mances and eat deli­cious food all while throw­ing col­or onto each oth­er. This event is free and is fam­i­ly friend­ly. Atten­dees are encour­aged to wear white and should be pre­pared to get messy and colorful! 

Vis­it the Empire State Cen­ter for the Book’s Chil­dren’s Book Week­end

New to Nolan Park this sum­mer is lit­er­ary mag­ic from the Empire State Cen­ter for the Book. Fam­i­lies should be sure to stop by Chil­dren’s Book Week­end Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, which will include four­teen authors read­ing sto­ries from their books over the course of the weekend 

Check out more events and exhibits dur­ing open­ing week and through­out the season.