Festivals

There are street fairs and then there are street fairs. We don't mean those random ones that sell irregular socks and fried Oreos; we're talking about true community festivals. Each one is unique and reflects the character of its neighborhood, and many feature rides, performances, activities and food. The hard part, of course, is knowing which ones are which, 'cause while we all love to stock up on cheap socks, we're not going to drag our family across town to do so.

We've gone through the city's list of festivals, street fairs and carnivals for the month of May and picked out our favorites from years past and some new events that sound promising. All of these fests are FREE or just a couple of bucks, and in most cases your dollars go to support a local charity or school, so you can feel good about spending money. In our research, we were bummed to learn that one of annual picks, the Hudson River Pageant, won't be happening this year. But there are 32 other awesome fests to choose from! You can find even more seasonal activities in our Spring Fun Guide.

One of our favorite annual spring events, the Tribeca Film Festival, is set to take over downtown Wednesday, April 17 to Sunday, April 28, and as always there are lots of awesome activities for families. The popular Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair takes place on Saturday, April 27. While Mommy Poppins won't have a booth like we did a few years back, many of us plan on attending with our families. Yes it's always crowded but it's also packed with surprises, great things to do and cool entertainment.

In addition to the Family Festival Street Fair, which includes Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day, there will be "drive-in" movies, a mini-film fest of kid-made shorts as well as flicks you can watch online. Here's the scoop on these great events, all of which are FREE.