The best things to do in New York this July
Offbeat cabaret, citywide pyrotechnics and natural wine pop-ups figure highly among the Big Apple’s top events this month
Here’s the thing about New York in the summer: it’s secretly our favourite season. Sure, the temperatures soar and the humidity makes walking down the street seem like you’re swimming through pudding. But this is just a minor inconvenience for a city that comes alive with special summer swag, epitomised by an exuberant extravaganza of culture, concerts, collabs and cosmic phenomena.
Much of the fanfare happens at sunset and beyond, when – here, another secret about NYC – it cools down at night, with the best things happening outdoors and under the stars. With July representing peak performance for the Big Apple, we’ve collected the brightest bits to keep you smiling, riding and dancing throughout the blaze of midsommar.
Seasonal things to do in New York
Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks, citywide
When: 4 July at 8pm
Price: Free
Set up along the Hudson River, this show-stopping Independence Day spectacle stars the boldest and baddest pyrotechnics in the game – watching on TV just doesn’t do it justice. While many New Yorkers will be watching from their rooftops (it’s visible from nearly all neighbourhoods in the city – even the Bronx) other options abound. Perhaps the best (and bougiest) is a front-row spot on a harbour cruise. If that’s out of budget, Macy’s hosts free-to-public viewing parties in locations along the West side waterfront between 14th and 34th streets, where entry is first-come first-served basis.
Manhattanhenge, Manhattan
When: 13 July at 8:21pm
Location: Manhattan, between 14th and 57th streets
Price: Free
There’s little chance you’ve escaped the hype around Manhattanhenge, the celestial event where the setting sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid. The result? A radiant glow of light across Manhattan’s brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough’s grid. A “rare and beautiful sight”, wrote astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who coined the event’s name, while Instagram has beckoned fellow sun-chasers to make massive thoroughfares like 14th, 23rd and 34th Street near impossible to navigate, but here’s a hot tip: the views from the midtown streets in the mid-fifties remain both manageable and mesmerising (55th St, we salute you!) ahead of sunset at 8:21pm.
Food and drink happenings in New York
Veselka, Williamsburg
Location: 646 Lorimer Street, BK
Price: Small plates from 10-17 USD; large plates from 20 USD
The East Village is not complete without Veselka – the Ukrainian institution synonymous with the downtown neighbourhood frequented by punks, drunks and NYU students (sometimes all three) who slurp pierogies and borscht down at 2am. After the events of 2022, Veselka served as not just an eatery but a community justice and economic project to help Ukranians on their native soil stay fed and afloat. Now, Veselka is branching out to a new location – swinging open its doors in Williamsburg – with a collaborative menu from iconic NY deli, Katz’s as well. Get there before the queues do.
Mission Chinese Food, Chinatown
Location: Cha Kee (43 Mott Street)
When: 5-10pm Wednesday-Sunday, until 31 July
Price: From 60 USD per person
Danny Bowien’s beloved Mission Chinese Food returns to New York for a summer pop-up after its dramatic closure in 2022 that left many puzzled. How could such a successful operation have the door slammed so abruptly? Bowien remains mum but he’s going back to the restaurant’s roots and headed to Chinatown, where, inside Cha Kee on Mott Street, the menu is serving the original 2010 hits – aka that legendary kung pao pastrami, mapo tofu and thrice-cooked bacon.
Gem Wine, Tribeca
Where: Spring Studios (10 St John Place)
When: Until early September
Price: Bottles from around 25 USD
Known for its low-intervention wines and inventive spritzes, teen prodigy chef Flynn McGarry’s Gem Wine on the LES is currently on hiatus, much to the dismay of downtowners. However, dry thy eyes as its prized bites and unexpected wine programme from lesser-known vintners rides once more, this time as a pop-up at Spring Studios, which runs until early September. Expect a weekly changing menu, focused on seafood towers, local fish and shellfish, yakitori and other seasonal small plates. There’s even a special 4 July event with Shy’s Burgers, where $180 affords an all-you-can-eat buffet and open bar.
Haustoria at Bohemia Hall & Beer Garden, Astoria
Location: 29-19 24th street, Astoria Queens
When: Saturday nights
Price: No cover
For a certain subset of New Yorkers, Astoria for a long-time only had one main draw: Bohemia. This Czech beer wonderland draws flocks of Manhattan and Brooklyn babes to cross the 59th street bridge or hop on the Q just to spend an afternoon downing pilsners and eating smazeny syr (fried cheese) in the extensive beer garden. Already a neighbourhood institution, news that underground dance collective Haustoria is throwing summer-long parties inside the banquet hall is just the kind of unexpected joy that makes New York summers unique. Keep an eye out on Instagram for special announcements and line-ups.
The best exhibitions in New York
Harlem Renaissance, Upper East Side
Location: The Metropolitan Museum (1000 Fifth Avenue)
When: Closing 28 July
Price: $20 for non-NY residents or members
When Harlem Renaissance opened in spring, the exhibition was hailed as groundbreaking, with insiders labelling it as the best show of the last five years. This historical show connects dots to the liberation and elevation of Black artists via the Great Migration to Harlem, New York, and how they portrayed modern life from the 1920s to 1940s. This is the first show on the subject since 1987 in New York, and it displays some of the finest work of the American mid-century available for the public to see. Make time to visit before it draws to a close at the end of the month.
Christopher Wool, Financial District
Location: 101 Greenwich Street
When: Until 31 July
Price: Free
Fans of contemporary art likely know Christopher Wool as the art market’s coolest uncle, the neo-conceptual painter beloved by bankers and commands hefty auction sums but who still bites his thumb at the establishment. Because of his reputation, Wool has teamed up with Belgian curator Anne Pontégnie for an exhibition of 75 works – painting, photography, drawing, prints, posters and books – where nothing is for sale, nor even underwritten by Wool’s many galleries or collectors. Wool took over a 19,000 sq ft raw space in an office building in the Financial District because he wanted the public to experience his work without all that market and material noise.
Joel Mesler’s Pool Party, Midtown
Location: Rockefeller Center
When: 2-22 July
Price: Free
Did we mention that New York gets hot in July? Well, beloved gallerist-turned-painter Joel Mesler, whose paintings have been picked up across the global contemporary art world and Instagram users alike for their cheeky-but-encouraging slogans in pop-art-inflected vernacular takes over the iconic Rockefeller Center skating rink with an interactive installation of a pool to evoke a space to chill – aka cool down. Mesler’s signature water “pool” filled with sculptural floaties and beach balls is an invitation to kick off your shoes and “dip toes” into the most revered of summer activities: pool time. If you can’t get enough of Mesler, his gallery representation Lévy Gorvy Dayan also has a solo show up in its 64th Street space (until 26 July).
Cultural happenings in New York
Oh Mary!, Theater District
Location: Lyceum Theater Box Office (149 W 45th St)
When: Until 12 August
Price: $89 and up
If you were already a fan of Cole Escola, Oh Mary! will only retain your fidelity to the unmatched New York/Hollywood campy comedian. If you’ve yet to encounter this indie darling, who’s stolen the show on The Girls on the Bus and Search Party, then this absurdist musical about Abe Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln just might be the perfect introduction to the wonderfully wild imagination of a multi-faceted theatrical talent. There’s a limited 12-week Broadway run starting in July, and has all of NYC talking so snag a ticket if you can.
Justin Vivian Bond at the Glade, Meatpacking District
Location: Little Island, Hudson River Park
When: 24–28 July
Price: Free
A downtown nightlife mainstay (frequently as part of the act Kiki & Herb), whose range hits from drag to Broadway, does a week of cabaret at the Glade in Hudson River Park’s Little Island for free. Mx Bond has worked rooms stuffy and small to splashy and grand, and this outdoor foray aims to enchant everyone in between.
Rooftop Films, citywide
Location: Across Manhattan and Brooklyn
When: Dates throughout July
Price: Free with RSVP, unless noted otherwise
Is it even summer without Rooftop Films, which started as a collectivist intervention downtown/Brooklyn by creatives who would project movies onto facing buildings or having rooftop parties to screen their friends’ films? Rooftop became a formal organisation in 1997, screening everything from indie avant-garde to forgotten Hollywood B-movies and overlooked archival finds, growing into the largest outdoor independent film festival in the country – run as an all-volunteer non-profit. Now the venues have moved from the tar beaches of Greenpoint lofts and Chinatown tenements to city real estate like Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park and Meatpacking’s Gansevoort Plaza and most of the films screened are free.
