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. 

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!

Open Streets: Car-Free Earth Day will close down 54 streets and plazas to vehicular traffic across all five boroughs from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, April 26. Expect community programs and public art activations in the areas as well. 

The idea is a simple one: by turning a portion of our city into a car-free zone, officials hope to promote activism and education about sustainable modes of transportation, climate change and environmentalism. This year, the NYC DOT has also commissioned five artists to come up with temporary, environmentally-focused works of different mediums along certain routes, including some by New York-based illustrators Ishita Jain and Caitlin Keegan. 

You can look through a map of all the streets and plazas set to go car-free right here. 

Juilliard is going all out for its annual Earth Month celebrations with five free public performances that honor the planet and show how our humanity is inextricably linked to the environment.

Juilliard’s on-campus multidisciplinary student group, the Green Club, is once again collaborating with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for their annual multi-genre free Earth Day concert at the David Rubenstein Atrium. There will also be a free public dance workshop outdoors at Hearst Plaza in collaboration with the Redhawk Native American Arts Council and Juilliard Dance. Along with free performances and concerts from student groups like the Juilliard Fiddle Club, the Earth Day programming will include a clothing swap and other green initiatives.

Events run from Wednesday, April 16 to Wednesday, April 30; see the full two-week schedule here. 

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!”

Earth lovers, tree huggers and all who give a damn about the planet we're spinning on: Mad World, the annual Earth Day celebration hosted by the femme- and queer-led SoMad art space returns for its third annual edition on Saturday, April 26.

From 1pm to 11pm at their three-story Manhattan HQ (34 East 23rd Street), this year's installment will center queer ecologies, a field that blends queer theory and environmental studies to cultivate inclusive, sustainable relationships with our environment. The lineup includes live performances, immersive installations, film screenings, a photography showcase, pop-up shops, food offerings and more. 

Grand Central Terminal may be a man-made marvel, but the historic venue is celebrating all things natural during its Earth Week Market, taking over the iconic Vanderbilt Hall on Thursday, April 24.

From 11am to 2pm, show your love for the planet by perusing and purchasing top-rate eco-friendly and sustainable items from retailers including MPR Jewelry | by Meghan Patrice Riley, Selen Designs, Warby Parker, Sabatino, Hudson News, Diptyque and Damselfly Flowers. Plus, you can team up with the New York Botanical Garden to craft native plant seed balls with Monarda seeds, compost, and clay—after crafting, plant your seed ball to support native plants and pollinators in your community.

Plant Junkie in the South Street Seaport will certainly be living up to its name this Earth Month. Through the end of April, the vegan restaurant will be rolling out a series of eco-conscious initiatives to promote sustainability and environmental responsibility.

Customers will receive free honey bee seed mix packetswith any in-store purchase (while supplies last) to encourage planting wildflowers across New York City. Plus, they're giving a 10% discount to anyone who visits the restaurant on a bike, skateboard or scooter, to reduce their carbon footprint and promote eco-friendly transportation options. That will have you working up an appetite, and the resto is taking care of that, too, with a new brunch menu full of plant-powered flapjacks, dairy-free parfaits, breakfast sandwiches and more.

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.