<\/p>\n

Not that it’s entirely unusual to hear a hodgepodge of German, Spanish, French and Dutch when you’re riding the subway in New York City, but the fact that a majority of those that I’ve been hearing are clutching guidebooks, wearing Styrofoam Statue of Liberty crowns, and poring over subway maps only means one thing: it’s August in New York.<\/p>\n

Which is why I thought I’d try to help out a bit and list some of my favorite, and more importantly, free things to do in the big city during the month of August.<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> Central Park hosts Shakespeare in the Park<\/a>, but good luck getting tickets. For free music, dance and film, check out the Central Park SummerStage<\/a>, with shows in August ranging from dance by The Wheeldon Company, to music by The Pretenders and Dinosaur Jr.<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong> With events all over Manhattan, the River to River Festival<\/a> has historically hosted some of the best free shows in the summer, from indie to classic rock. Though I wouldn’t normally recommend it, a trip to South Street Seaport is a wonderfully odd place to watch music and drink a beer on a warm summer night given the bobbing 19th-century ships floating in the harbor next to the stage.<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong> Free outdoor movies are actually easy to come by in the summer. Bryant Park hosts movies<\/a> every Monday (The Magnificent Seven, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Brooklyn hosts flicks under the Brooklyn Bridge<\/a> (Butch Cassidy, Catch Me If You Can, and Edward Scissorhands), and indie flicks and shorts are the main course with the Rooftop Films series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4) <\/strong>And believe it or not, NYC actually has some decent beaches, perfect for those sweltering mid-August days where an afternoon spent trudging the melting asphalt doesn’t sound too pleasing. The Parks and Recreation site<\/a> has a listing of beaches, including directions, for all beaches, the best and perhaps most scenic being Rockaway Beach, where you can even do a little surfing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not that it’s entirely unusual to hear a hodgepodge of German, Spanish, French and Dutch when you’re riding the subway in New York City, but the fact that a majority of those that I’ve been hearing are clutching guidebooks, wearing Styrofoam Statue of Liberty crowns, and poring over subway maps only means one thing: it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2562,2561],"tags":[629,630,627,628,8,9,631],"yoast_head":"\n