Best Free Things to Do This Fall in New York City

The fall season in New York City brings a slew of free events. Across the five boroughs you’ll find holiday parades, literary crawls and celebrations of international cultures, all of which you can enjoy without breaking the bank. We’ve gathered some of our favorite ones below

Lit Crawl NYC - Oct 1
There are bar crawls for St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and even juice in NYC, but the most cerebral one must be the Lit Crawl. Instead of dressing in costume and leaving a trail of bars in your unsteady wake, participants can play Nerd Jeopardy or listen to book readings. The booze, of course, is not free.

Deepavali - Oct 2
Celebrate Diwali, an ancient Hindu festival that’s one of the biggest and brightest events in Manhattan. The South Street Seaport will serve as the site of food stalls, clothing vendors, henna painting, dancing and musical performances, with fireworks topping things off at 9pm. The AIA (Association of Indians in America) runs this long-standing event.

Columbus Day Parade – Oct 10
Secure a spot along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue for a family-friendly celebration filled with colorful floats and rousing musical performances. The parade honors Italian-Americans' contributions to New York City and draws around million spectators and 35,000 marchers. The parade travels from 44th Street to 72nd Street and marching bands will perform along its length, and there's also a "red carpet" area between 67th and 69th Streets for stage acts—special passes are needed to get up close. For more information, visit columbuscitizensfd.org.

Open House New York - OCT 15 —Oct 16
Get a glimpse of NYC’s rarely seen spaces with Open House New York. The wide variety of sites that host the weekend-long event range from boardrooms to bedrooms, crypts to clubs, factories to firehouses, lighthouses to lookouts, monuments to mansions, skyscrapers to substations—enough to satisfy anyone’s inner snoop. Once available, a guide to the weekend’s events can be found at ohny.org.

Marco Polo Festival —Oct 15
Chinatown and Little Italy join forces to throw the Marco Polo Festival, a celebration of Asian and European cultures (specifically Chinese and Italian) and their joint historic district in downtown Manhattan. After a parade through the streets, opera performances, acrobatics and instrumental performances take place during the day in the two neighborhoods.

Village Halloween Parade —Oct 31
Every year 50,000 folks parade up Sixth Avenue—decked out in some of the City’s scariest, most inventive and most hilarious costumes—while numerous live bands complement the ghoulish revelry. Show up with a creative costume of your own and join the parade (but note that a costume is a must to march!), or stick to your civvies and take in the spectacle from the sidelines. Marchers line up on Sixth Avenue between Canal and Spring Streets. The parade gets rolling at 7pm and heads north up Sixth Avenue to 16th Street. For more info, visit halloween-nyc.com for tips on watching and participating.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade – Nov 24
A Thanksgiving tradition for more than 90 years, this parade is one of the most famous holiday events in the world. Millions line the streets of Manhattan to watch celebrities, Broadway performers, clowns, marching bands, floats (including Santa himself riding a reindeer-powered sleigh) and the true headliners of the day: the all-star roster of floating balloons—Snoopy, Hello Kitty and friends—flying high above the route. The procession heads south down Central Park West from 77th Street, east along Central Park South to Sixth Avenue and then south along Sixth Avenue to West 34th Street, ending in front of Macy’s in Herald Square. Also, the inflating of the balloons along the perimeter of the American Museum of Natural History has become an annual Thanksgiving eve tradition on the Upper West Side.