The best Earth Month events in NYC

Spring is finally arriving, and what better way to celebrate than by joining the Broadway Green Alliance and Times Square Alliance for the festive return of the Broadway Celebrates Earth Day concert?

On Saturday, April 26 from 11am–3pm, head to Times Square’s Pedestrian Plaza for the free outdoor performances, which will serve as a marquee event for the NYC Department of Transportation’s city wide “Car-Free Earth Day” and will highlight the theatre community’s ongoing efforts to combat the climate crisis with actionable steps.

Taking to the stage will be hosts Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley (Stars in the House), Tony Award winner Shaina Taub (Suffs), Tony nominee Stark Sands (Kinky Boots) and Grammy nominee Merle Dandridge (Hadestown), among others, as well as 75 musically inclined students from the tri-state area. 

You know what they say, be good to your mother—Mother Nature, that is. If you want to give back to the Earth that birthed you, you can join the NYC environmental nonprofit Project Petals for an Earth Month Volunteer Day on April 22 at Paradise Community Garden in South Jamaica, Queens, to help prepare for the upcoming strawberry harvest and repair storm damage.

Project Petals works to create healthier environments, ensure food security and improve green spaces, and you can aid them in doing just that by gardening, composting, planting, painting and more. If you’re particularly handy, volunteers can also help repair the greenhouse and park benches, as well as help install a water irrigation system. Interested in lending a hand? Sign up here!

Come together with other eco-conscious New Yorkers to call for climate action and environmental justice, all while having a springy afternoon full of seasonal fun.

On Thursday, April 17 from noon to 6pm, head to Union Square for the Earth Day Initiative’s free, open-to-the-public festival featuring exhibits from dozens of environmental non-profits and climate campaigns, as well as interactive workshops, climate art, yummy sustainable foods (Very Cool Ice Cream, Just Ice Team, GT’s Living Foods), and live performances from eco-rapper Hila the Earth and climate comedy act Apo-HA-HA-calypse. There will also be kids’ activities for the youngins because, duh, the children are our future. 

For the sixth year, House of Yes is celebrating Earth Day with eco-action, creativity and dance. Open to all ages, the free event will take place at the Bushwick venue on Sunday, April 27 from noon to 6pm and will offer both indoor and outdoor festivities “designed to inspire sustainable living and creative expression,” organizers say.

Along with the fest’s diverse array of creators and speakers, climate experts, ocean conservationists, and sustainable designers, the lineup will include an electrifying live performance by Hila The Earth and immersive experiences curated by partners such as DJs for Climate Action, Future Sound of Music, Zero Waste Daniel, Absurd Conclave, and Future Meets Present.

“Green your life, move to the grooves, get inspired, and fall in love with our planet all over again,” as event planners say. Don’t mind if we do!

Get your hands dirty in honor of the 54th anniversary of Earth Day! Queens Farm is hosting a volunteer day on April 22 to better connect visitors to agriculture and the environment with an afternoon of outdoor activities highlighting simple ways you can give back to the farm and our planet. 

Help prep garden beds, sift compost, mulch trails and paths, remove rocks and more on the historic farmland, and in return you’ll get to enjoy fun sustainability-themed activities like an eco scavenger hunt, tractor-drawn hayrides, a “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” book swap, apiary talks, yummy grub from local food vendors and more.

The annual EarthFest celebration returns to the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday, April 5, with a full day of family-friendly activities and performances to celebrate Earth Month.

Free with museum admission, the festival will include hands-on science and art activities, engagements with real-deal scientists, and cool new "Identification Stations," where attendees can bring their own specimens for Museum scientists to identify. Partake in engaging craft workshops, where you'll learn about species of local flowers while flower-pressing a one-of-a-kind art piece, turn yourself into a shark and swim through the virtual ocean, and more. Check out the full EarthFest schedule of events at the AMNH website. 

Looking for a way to give back this Earth Day? You can head to Governors Island for its  annual Earth Day celebration, which will celebrate Mother Nature through free educational activities and workshops for all ages.

On Saturday, April 19, from 10am to 3pm in Colonels Row, you can partake in events like an Island-wide scav­enger hunt, seed­ball work­shops, a tree stamp­ing art activ­i­ty, eco­log­i­cal stewardship projects, cli­mate tech demos, DJ sets, com­mu­ni­ty sci­ence exhibits, and more. (You can check out the full lineup of Earth Day events at the Governors Island website.) Delicious food from Mak­i­na Café and Lit­tle Eva’s will be available to keep you satiated all afternoon.  

Gear up for a lively Earth Day celebration with arts and crafts, cooking demonstrations, tasty treats, live performances and more—and did we mention it’s all free? Randall’s Island annual Earth Day Festival is back on April 26, offering an afternoon of family-friendly, interactive fun to welcome the warmer months and seasonal blooms. Embrace the park’s natural beauty as you play games, get down to live music, partake in educational activities and learn about sustainability.

“With spring right around the corner, I am thrilled to welcome patrons both old and new to Randall’s Island Park in the coming weeks,” Deborah Maher, president of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance, said in a press release. “There is never a better time to rediscover Randall’s Island. Our diverse programming slate has something for everyone, and I’m looking forward to seeing our Park vibrant and bustling!”

It's that magical time of year when red buds and green leaves finally burst forth from the brown tree branches we've been seeing for months. If you want a tree of your own to care for, you can get one for free this spring thanks to the New York Restoration Project (NYRP). 

Just in time for Earth Month, NYRP is hosting free tree giveaways with community partners throughout New York City from April 5 through May 4, 2025. They play to distribute 3,500 trees across the five boroughs, including American persimmon, flowering dogwood, and Pawpaw trees, as a way to help NYC's environmental resilience. Here's how to find a tree distribution spot near your neighborhood. 

What better way to celebrate the natural beauty of New York’s waterways than by getting out on the water? Set sail this Earth Day and beyond with Classic Harbor Line’s Climate Change eco-cruise series, which will be narrated by local expert Doug Fox and will circumnavigate Manhattan in a custom-crafted, 1920s-style yacht.

Leaving from Chelsea’s Pier 62, the 2.75-hour tour will give you a panoramic and thought-provoking view of the city’s growing sustainability efforts, including eco-conscious architecture springing up citywide to reduce NYC’s carbon footprint, renewable energy sources, elevated shoreline parks and neighborhoods, and fortified transportation infrastructure. Your ticket will include one beverage (beer, wine, or soft drink) or one half-price cocktail. Plus, there's a curated snack menu available on board.

Tours run from April 22 through November 7.

In honor of Earth Day, Brooklyn Art Haus is presenting a lineup of prominent visual artists whose works powerfully respond to the climate crisis.

"The Human Layer" exhibition highlights artists such as Ross Carvill, Max Gordon, Julia Forrest, Nia, Tslil Tsemet and Lei Tyebie, whose pieces react to "evolving landscapes, high moments of social activism, and the relocation of humans, as an attempt to expand and shift perceptions of the onlooker," per the gallery. Along with taking in these evocative works, viewers are welcomed to participate in the exhibition by "adding their own wisdom and illustrations to form their own collective response."

You can attend the opening reception for "The Human Layer" on Thursday, April 3 from 6pm to 9pm—it’s free to attend, just RSVP here. After that, the show runs through May 29.

FAD—which stands for Fashion, Art and Design—takes over different venues with a horde of independent vendors and creators. Admission is free and dogs are welcome!

Peruse handmade jewelry, apparel, skincare products, tableware, artisanal packaged food, and more. Whether you're shopping for you or a friend (or even getting an early on that holiday shopping), there are plenty of local gems to pick up.

On April 26-27, there's an Earth Month pop-up at Center for Brooklyn History in Brooklyn Heights. 

Boradway musical Redwood is very much in the Earth Day spirit. 

It centers on Jesse (played by Idina Menzel), a capable, cosmopolitan Jewish woman paralyzed by sadness about the recent death of her college-age son (Zachary Noah Piser). Her desperation literally drives her up a tree: She leaves New York City—where, of course, she owns an art gallery—and motors to California, where she persuades a pair of environmentalists, Finn (Michael Park) and Becca (Khaila Wilcoxon), to let her join them in scaling an enormous redwood for science. Can “nature’s remedy” help this neurotic city gal find her bearings? Naturally, it can.

Here's a round-up of food and drink venues working to minimize food waste, reduce or reuse and aim to go green. From a bar minimzing its carbon footprint to a "certified green" barcade, you can have some fun while helping the planet.

In a city full of lost and discarded items, there’s beauty and meaning to be found in our trash.

As NYC deals with what seems like more garbage on its streets and the threat of climate change on its waterfront, an increasing amount of artists are turning to the sidewalks, alleyways and curbs to find their respective mediums. Sure, it may be your trash, but it’s their treasure.

Here are five of NYC’s sustainable artists who make radical art using found objects. Their work, piece by piece, aims to turn the effects of overconsumption and waste on their head and illuminate viewers on the imbalance in our ecosystem. 

In a city of 8.5 million, New York City sure has a ton of trash. Actually, it has tons of trash every year.

Whether we like it or not, garbage is so much a part of NYC living. It’s just part of the makeup of the city like pigeons or mystery puddles.

Here's a comprehensive guide on how to to recycle, compost and get rid of anything in NYC.