• HOWL! Festival
Party town: Drag queen performers at HOWL! Angela Jimenez / Getty Images / AFP
4-6 September: Named after an Allen Ginsberg poem, the three-day festival celebrates the humongous contribution of the East Village and Lower East Side to cutting-edge music, literature, theatre and the fine arts at Tompkins Square Park. Click here for details.
• West Indian-American Day Carnival
7 September: No one parties like the West Indians, and when they bring out the parade, all of NYC joins in. The route, from Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue to Flatbush Avenue Extension, will be chock-a-block—you can’t but have fun for free!
• Feast of San Gennaro
10-20 September: If the Caribbean carnival doesn’t set your party meter ticking, try the Italians. The longest-running religious outdoor festival in the city, this year’s feast is expected to attract around a million people. Click here for details.
• Brooklyn Book Festival
13 September: One of America’s leading literary events, the festival will see authors such as Paul Auster and Anita Desai rub shoulders with upcoming talent at the Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza. Click here for details.
• New York Film Festival
25 September-11 October: The first big platform for directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Martin Scorsese, the festival opens this year with Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass and closes with Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces. In between, there’s Lars von Trier’s Antichrist and Todd Solondz’s Life During Wartime. Tickets are available online. Click here for details.
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