Unfortunately, not many kids tolerate sitting through a full-length production at the Metropolitan Opera House, but culture-craving parents can rejoice—summer is full of arts-oriented festivals that are foolproof kid-pleasers.  Summer festivals celebrating music, dance, comedy and other arts get the whole family involved in the fun. 

The following 12 summer art and music festivals are located in interesting destinations, so you could easily build your summer vacation around them. The outdoor festivals cause the locations and the performers to merge seamlessly, blurring the line between art and reality, and creating a magical environment that is sure to make a memorable vacation.

There must be something in the air. A bunch of kid-centric businesses across the city are closing, moving or reopening, like Dumbo's Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, which is once again serving the sweet stuff after being closed since October, and Kidville, which is closing and opening downtown and in the Bronx.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn is set to get its own David Rockwell-designed Imagination Playground, the New York Hall of Science adds a healthy cafe to its list of attractions, school admissions are all screwed up and a call to help an ill young girl.

Toss a sweater over your shoulders and take your kids on a stroll through Southampton, a village that has it all. Whether you're summering in the Hamptons, going for a day trip, or lucky to be a local, you'll fall in love with this historic, quaint and happening village.

As a musician turned stay-at-home-mom, I've made sure that music plays a major part in my children's lives. But that's been a bit of a challenge with my oldest son, who was born with multiple disabilities, including severe sensory issues. He cried at the sound of applause at concerts, ran and hid whenever he heard the "Happy Birthday" song (you can imagine how well that played out during school) and screamed at me to "Stop singing with the radio! You're hurting my ears!" Bruised ego aside, it killed me that my son wasn't able to experience and love music the way the rest of my family did, but there didn't seem to be anything I, or a team of therapists for that matter, could do about it.

When we moved to New York City, I was thrilled to find so many special needs-friendly activities, and quickly signed my son up for adaptive baseball, soccer and basketball. And, since I refused to let go of my dream of turning him on to music, I decided to give Daniel's Music Foundation a try.

During our initial interview, I explained my son's anxiety with music in general, but the staff didn't seem fazed. His first day of classes went well, and while I waited to pick him up, I heard the teacher announce a birthday. I froze, waiting for the meltdown. Nothing. I peeked anxiously inside. My son was sitting next to a helper, calmly waiting for the next song. It was a miracle! And the progress didn't stop there. Six months later, he stood on stage for the first time in his life and performed in the DMF holiday show. As the end of the song neared, he began to cry in anticipation of the applause. DMF cofounder Mike Trush hopped up on stage and helped my son stay up there through the clapping. Four years later, my son now performs with a proud grin on his face, even during the applause.

While DMF has earned a permanent place in our schedule and my heart, I'm happy to tell you that there are many New York City programs that give children with special needs the chance to learn an instrument or how to sing, and to perform on stage—in front of strangers no less. Here are some of our favorites:

Screen Free Week, which begins on Monday, April 29th, and continues through Sunday, May 5th, is a national celebration where families, communities, and in some cases, schools, sign a pledge to become screen-free for one week. Once the screens are off, families are encouraged to read, play, enjoy nature, get crafty, or simply get lost in  daydreaming.  Once you unplug, you may be surprised to find how much time you really do spend being plugged in. So what will you do with all this extra time? You know you've come to the right place....

In addition to all of the Screen-Free Week activities below, be sure to check out our  posts on the top libraries in Nassau and Suffolk, our guide to state parks in Nassau and Suffolk, County Parks in Nassau and Suffolk and Long Island's Botanical Gardens. Also, be sure to check out our events calendar for a full listing of activities in the area.

We love comic books and comic cons almost as much as we love freebies. Put the two together and we're giddier than Iron Man with a new gadget (or girl).

This Saturday, May 4 is the annual Free Comic Book Day when shops across the country give away certain issues at no cost. We've got the scoop on how to find a participating comic shop near you, as well as details on two free comic cons in the Bronx this month, including the annual Kids Comic Con.

Do you feel lucky? This week we have not one, not two but three great giveaways going on at Mommy Poppins. Enter to win an Earth Friendly Products gift basket chock-full of eco-friendly cleaning supplies; a professional portrait of your kids by artist Lori Nelson or a four pack of tickets to the Guggenheim Museum. Not only are the prizes eclectic, the methods of winning are as well. For the Earth Friendly Products and Lori Nelson portraits, all you need to do is enter to win. But for the Guggenheim giveaway, we're encouraging readers to take the kids to the museum's current exhibit Gutai, snap a pic and submit it to our Facebook or Pinterest pages. That giveaway is definitely the most fun and is totally in keeping with our site's mission of getting families out and about doing cool things with kids.

Speaking of fun family outings, festival season is in full swing, which inspired us to round up our top 25 FREE annual festivals. And would you believe three of our picks take place this very weekend?

Our other sites have also been busy sharing the best things to do this spring on Long Island, in New Jersey, Connecticut and beyond, but a few posts will be of particular interest to New York families. If your kids are begging to see the likes of Taylor Swift and One Direction live, NJ's got a roundup of concerts for tweens, most easily accessible from the city. Our LA site did an awesome post in honor of Screen-Free Week with 10 fun no-tech things to do with kids. And on a more somber note, our CT site has a heartfelt post about ways kids can volunteer in the wake of a tragedy. While some of the suggestions are local, there are also ideas that apply to families anywhere, like donating allowance or toys.

Here's what else we covered in NYC this week:

Festival season has begun! From the Harvard ArtsFirst Festival to the Boston College Arts Festival, the Sheepshearing Festival at Gore Place to the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts at Brandeis, our calendar is filling up with this sure sign of spring. We also have performances of the Catskill Puppet Theater’s The Town that Fought Hate, an Earth Day celebration in Concord, a children’s opera by the Boston Conservatory, and more. Read on for this weekend’s highlights.

Early results from our recent survey (didn’t get a chance to take it? there’s still time!) indicate that our readers are interested in knowing about day trips and weekend getaways. In that vein, we continue our coverage with some insights into the East Bay RI towns of Bristol and Warren. We also recognize National Bike Month in May with our Cycling with Kids post that covers local trails and routes, tours, and special bike-related events.

And with Mother’s Day just over two weeks away, we’ve highlighted some special kid-friendly Mother’s Day brunches - reservations required!

Be sure to check our Events calendar for more things to do, and please stay tuned for an announcement about a very special festival being planned to benefit The One Fund Boston - The One Family Music Festival. Details coming soon.

Until then, enjoy!