Things to do on a Sunday in New York

Celebrate Holi on the Hudson on Sunday, April 6 during this family-friendly outdoor event hosted by Akṣarā at Riverside Park near Pier I Cafe. Your ticket will include a kite, so you can join fellow revelers in filling the sky with vibrant colors. In addition to flying kites, also expect activities and performances to keep the whole family engaged and learning.

The event marks Holi, a Hindu festival of spring that is celebrated by people of all religions and backgrounds in India. "At the core, the festival spreads messages of love, goodness, and renewal," event organizers explain. A heads up that, while use of Holi colors is prohibited in the park, guests are encouraged to dress in Indian-inspired festive clothes. There will be special giveaways for best-dressed couples and families. 

Tickets cost $33.85 and include entrance for a family of four, one adult kite, one kids kite, and access to all creative stations.

Excited for Holi? Look no further than Prospect Park, where Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Mixed Masala will celebrate the festival of colors on Sunday, April 6. The celebration begins at 1pm with picnicking and live music by the Arun Ramamurthy Trio at Long Meadow (near Grand Army Plaza)—make sure to bring a blanket, some snacks and your pals to best enjoy the free outdoor concert. 

Attendees will also be invited to join in the traditional celebration of throwing colored powder, so make sure you wear white to get the full colorful effect! 

Is there a certain dish you still dream about? One that you wish would come back to the menu of your favorite restaurant? Yes, us too. Luckily, Chef Driven Hospitality is indulging in our nostalgia by reviving the dishes of yesteryear. 

This month, the hospitality group is launching its inaugural Forgotten Foods Festival. Now through April 6, all 16 restaurants within the hospitality group’s portfolio will revive dishes that time almost forgot. Each restaurant has interpreted the definition of “forgotten” differently, with some chefs channeling treasured family recipes and techniques mastered in the early days of their culinary careers while others looked back to dishes that defined history.

To check out the full list of menus, check out the website here.

Forget the 14-hour flight from NYC to Tokyo, you can now discover the tastes of Japan with just a short subway ride to JAPAN Fes. The massive annual food festival just announced its 2025 dates, and the schedule is packed with events.

The organization is hosting nearly 30 outdoor events in NYC this year. What used to be just a summertime festival is now a year-round celebration across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Event organizers say it's the largest Japanese food festival in the world, attracting 300,000 visitors and featuring 1,000 vendors every year.

Here are the upcoming dates: April 5 in the East Village; April 6 on the Upper West Side; April 19 on the Upper West Side; April 20 in Chelsea; April 26 in Chelsea; April 27 in Astoria; May 4 on the Upper West Side; May 10 in Chelsea; May 18 in Park Slope; June 7 in Midtown West; and June 15 in Park Slope.

Smorgasburg, the food bazaar spectacular, is back as of April with dozens of great local vendors across three locations. Smorgasburg WTC runs on Fridays; Williamsburg is on Saturdays; and Prospect Park is on Sundays. Each location is open weekly through October. 

For its 15th year of outdoor food and fun, Smorgasburg will showcase more than 70 vendors. The food festival will be filled with fragrant Ethiopian stews, Hawaii-style street comforts, explosive pani puri, potato puff poutine and lots more.

For neurodiverse audiences, the world of performing arts is not always a welcoming place. So in its seventh annual Big Umbrella Festival, Lincoln Center is inviting that world to come to them.

From April 4 through April 20, 2025, the arts complex will host companies from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Mexico and Peru in programs specially designed to entertain and engage with children, teens and adults with autism, sensory and communication disorders or learning disabilities. The festival's events cover a spectrum of theater, music, dance, comedy and visual art.

Ahead of The Handmaid’s Tale finale, The Paley Museum in midtown is hosting an immersive exhibit featuring the costumes, artifacts and props from the Emmy Award-winning show. It'll be on view starting Friday, April 4, through Sunday, June 8.

At the Paley Museum, “The Legacy of The Handmaid’s Tale: June’s Evolution from Handmaid to Rebel” will put you face-to-face with its costumes, including June's iconic red handmaid’s dress, cloak and white winged bonnet and Serena Joy Waterford’s haunting teal dress, as well as costumes worn by other pivotal characters. You’ll also get to see Commander Waterford’s Scrabble board, Nichole’s doll from Nick, June’s Boston map and June’s terrifying Handmaid muzzle.

Grab your paddles, pickeball fans, because the popular sport is back in Central Park all spring and summer long. CityPickle will open at the park's Wollman Rink as of April 4 through the early fall. 

This is the third season for pickleball on 14 courts in the center of Manhattan—the largest pickleball offering in the Northeast. This tennis/ping-pong/badminton hybrid has become the country's fastest-growing sport, with more than 130,000 New Yorkers flocking to Wollman Rink's courts in past years. All skill levels are welcome for court rentals, clinics, open play, and private events from 8am to 9pm daily. Plus, expect summer camps, events, and special free programming. 

The 2025 edition of Frigid New York's Fringe Festival features more than 60 productions, each less than an hour long and each performed four or five times at the East Village's Under St. Marks and wild project and midtown's two Chain Theatre venues (plus four at the Rat NYC in Brooklyn). That means you can choose among at least 10 shows every weekday and about twice that many on weekends.

Options include an abundance of solo shows, new adaptations of Machinal and Uncle Vanya, and several projects by established names: The End of All Flesh, a postapocalyptic bluegrass musical by Urinetown co-writer Greg Kotis; Gabe Mollica: Horse Lawyer, by the comedian behind 2023's Solo: A Show About Friendship; 90 Years of Song and Scandal, a showcase for the world's oldest female stand-up, D'yan Forest; and The Retreating World, a monologue by Naomi Wallace (One Flea Spare). 

Peruse the full list of offerings here, or view them in calendar form here.

Step inside the gates of The Woodlawn Cemetery and Conservancy in The Bronx to learn some fascinating history and pick up some new-to-you books. At Pages of the Past, Woodlawn will host a free-to-attend community day and book sale on Sunday, April 6.

Find the book sale in the Woolworth Chapel where you can peruse a diverse selection of gently used books covering topics such as jazz, vaudeville, the Gilded Age, cemetery history in New York, and biographies of notable individuals interred at Woodlawn. Plus, enjoy free guided tours of the stunning Harbeck Mausoleum and self-guided tours of the cemetery’s significant Gilded Age landmarks.