Nothing’s better than a free NYC festival! PlayTimesSquared will have your family making new friends and trying exciting interactive games right in the heart of bustling Times Square! Visitors will be able to participate in a Symphonic Picnic, where littles can explore astroturf and blankets while interacting with “nature” (musical mushrooms—no joke!) to make their own music. In another (more active) game dubbed Subway Chaos, your crew will play hopscotch across a large subway map in a race to Times Square, complete with game challenges and unexpected roadblocks that reflect NYC rush hour traffic.
All of the games are free to play (see below for dates and times), and here’s the full roster of stuff that’s available:
Faces of New York
Help to draw fractions of an image that’ll be combined into a huge mural throughout the day.
High5Zone
This game (similar to freeze tag) requires high-fives to race around through play zones—no one can move without high-fiving a passerby, so expect to make some new friends.
Museum of Missed Connections
Listen to headphones that help you navigate Times Square and interact with people, props and artifacts.
Prom Game
Best-suited to the older set, this funny game has players mingling and getting to know strangers using questions from different love tests. Eventually, two players will prevail and win as Prom King and Prom Queen.
Real Pong
Teams of 3–4 will hit a huge beach ball back and forth to get it past their opponents. All team members are armed with a connected string of boxes, and each person holds one box!
Subway Chaos
Challenge each other to a game of hopscotch in Subway Chaos, where players will compete to race across a New York subway map (and face many hurdles inspired by peak hour traffic).
Symphonic Picnic
Enjoy a new kind of picnic while using interactive objects to create your own music.
TossYourBeanBack
Play a classic game of bags/beanbag toss in teams to see who has the best hand-eye coordination!
Catch the event from Thursday, July 14 to Saturday, July 16 on the Broadway Plazas (between 42nd and 43rd Sts, and 43rd and 44th Sts). All games will be available from noon–4pm on July 14, 15 and then from 2–6pm July 16. The event is free to the public.