New York 42 What changed in New York
A few things a week that are worth knowing about and that we could check.
Broadway Week: which of the 25 is it for
Twenty-five New York shows take the two-for-one from 8 to 20 September. They are not equally worth it, and the reason has less to do with the shows than with what each one costs the rest of the year.
Hudson foliage cruise tickets are on sale
Circle Line has two foliage sailings from New York this September: an eight-hour run to Bear Mountain on the 19th and 20th, and a four-hour trip toward Hook Mountain on the 26th and 27th. Last year sold out.
160 car-free Halloween streets
New York's Department of Transportation hands a record 160 Open Streets and plazas to Halloween this October, with free trick-or-treating, costume contests and one signature party in each borough.
HUMM opens in the West Village
The Eleven Madison Park chef's à la carte sister restaurant opens at 435 Hudson Street, New York, on Saturday, October 10, with a roast chicken for two and a martini cart.
No Pumpkin Flotilla this year
New York's Pumpkin Flotilla will not cross the Harlem Meer this Halloween: the Central Park Conservancy says the free event drew more people than its setup could safely handle. No replacement in 2026.
A Firehorse leads the parade
New York's 53rd Village Halloween Parade steps off at 7pm on 31 October under the theme Body & Soul, led by a Firehorse built for the Year of the Horse. NY1 carries it live from 8pm.
Lucas Museum opens 22 September
George Lucas and Mellody Hobson's 300,000-square-foot museum opens with 1,300 works across 30-plus galleries. For a New York museumgoer the draw is not Star Wars, it is the room of reproductions.
Okefenokee inscribed
UNESCO inscribed the Okefenokee in July: the largest subtropical lowland freshwater peatland on earth. For a New York reader it is the rare World Heritage site reachable without a passport.
SXSW early-bird ends September 17
The cheapest way into Austin next March closes in nine days. SXSW puts the gap between the early-bird badge and the walk-up rate at up to $900.
A billion dollars of pet costumes
The National Retail Federation's most recent survey puts total Halloween spending at a record $13.1 billion — and $1 billion of that on costumes for animals. The most popular one is a pumpkin.
Fifty buffalo, two boroughs
Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi brings a herd of fifty puppets through New York — Lower Manhattan on 18 September, Downtown Brooklyn on 19 September. It is free.
MoMA: what closes, what opens
At MoMA in New York, the Kahlo and Rivera show ends 12 September and the Peggy Weil on 4 October. Between 15 September and 14 November, six more open — here are all the dates in one place.
Seven free days on MacDonough Street
Asase Yaa’s Art Is Alive runs 13–19 September on MacDonough Street in Bed-Stuy, New York: 90-minute classes all week, free, ending in a block party on the Saturday.
Saturn’s decagon was in the archive
A ten-sided wave now circles Saturn’s south pole. Hubble had photographed it since 2023; it took two amateurs in 2024 to say what it was.
The parade hits 100 on its 102nd year
New York's Thanksgiving parade on November 26 brings a record 100 inflatable elements, a Hogwarts Great Hall float, a new Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey and the return of Underdog.
The Fire Museum is open again
Closed since May 2024 over the structural integrity of its 1904 firehouse, New York City's fire museum reopened on 20 August — days before 11 September 2026.
Lenape Legacies opens 25 September
The Museum of the City of New York opens a show organised with the Éenda-Lŭnaapeewáhkiing Collective, with more than 30 artists — and no past tense.
Bus Festival, free, 19 September
Saturday 19 September, 10am to 3:30pm, free in Brooklyn Bridge Park — vintage New York buses at street level in the year the museum reaches its fiftieth.
Fifteen shows, eleven of them plays
Broadway's autumn in New York: eleven plays to four musicals, and eight of the fifteen are revivals. That ratio says more about the economics than any grosses report.
$350bn to $4tn, and then a handover
Tim Cook handed Apple to John Ternus on 1 September. The run he closes out is the largest single-tenure value creation the market has recorded, and it is not repeatable.
Venice ranks. New York doesn't.
The 83rd Venice festival opens 2 September with a jury, a competition and a Golden Lion. The New York Film Festival opens 13 days later with none of the three, and that is a decision.
The Brooklyn Museum sets out its autumn
Six shows open at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, in October: manga in the Great Hall, fifty European works from the Pearlman Collection, Hopi kachina dolls and a lobby installation on the Tuskegee Airmen.
Disney will sail from New York again in 2027
The Disney Wish returns to New York in autumn 2027 after four years away: seven sailings, five of them to Bermuda, one a foliage run to Boston, Saint John and Halifax. Booking opens 8 September.