Hello Panda Festival runs from Dec 6, 2019 - Jan 26, 2020 daily form 5PM -10PM. Was interested to…read moresee what they came up with since it was being promoted as the largest lantern festival in North America...However, I beg to differ. It was not that big, a lot of open space and was freezing outside. Would recommend getting discount tickets. Only took me 40 mins going around and taking pictures... and didn't understand some of their themes e.g. the squirrel robot was very weird! Butterfly wings and castle were nice. The bike wall should have had instructions - peddle fast to light up the wall (unless I missed it). Wasn't that busy or packed the day I went, but very, very cold. Overall, this lantern festival was ok... This event is in the parking lot of CitiField, not inside CitiField. Best to bring a real camera -- if you have a smartphone, better bring portable charger...iPhone batteries will drain very quickly as they cannot adapt to hot or cold weather. Bathrooms are porta-potties. If you want to warm up, go inside the dome tents for food (cash only and cheap) and other things for kids to do. Good to see it once and with a discount, not worth going again.

Bye bye Panda Pandas in the wild may eat green leaves but…read morethis panda ate green 20 dollar bills right out of my wallet. And like pandas in the wild, it had an insatiable appetite. **Update** When the festival first opened, it was a lot of fun! The ticket price was discounted. Since then, the holiday spirit has clearly departed. Instead, it's been replaced by crowds and an overpriced venue. Yes - you have to pay for the food plus the ticket, parking (if you have a car), the ball room, souvenirs, and basically anything there. If you purchase a ticket on site, they even added a surcharge to credit card purchases. Remember to bring enough cash. The additional items add up quickly, and can easily reach 100$ for a family. That's a lot of green dollars - not leaves - for a Panda festival!

A pretty low-key street fair that comes to 63rd Drive in Rego Park a few times a year, usually in…read morethe spring and fall. The event closes off the four blocks between Queens Blvd and Austin St. Most vendors sell jewelry, clothing, bags, or kids' toys. There aren't a ton of food options but you can usually find Italian festival food (sausages, fried food, etc.), a Jamaican tent, a Mexican one, and another serving arepas. My favorite has been Parka Zada's Jamaican food, which offers reasonable prices and generous portions. While the 63rd Drive Festival isn't a huge attraction, it is a pleasant way to stroll the street without cars for a day.

Basically a perfect small Comedy Club!…read more Very chill neighborhood spot with killer talent - I saw Rob Rego, Pedro Salinas, Joe List, Greg Stone & Raanan Hershberg here last night (11/30/2023) and they were all super solid. Great, clear sound system, friendly owners & self-seating - I'll def be back here again!

Grove 34 is a cute little venue spot off Broadway and 34th Street in Astoria. I had regularly…read morepassed by and this place came off as rather snooty, even more so than one would expect My opinion changed when I went to attend a reading/lecture/meeting in support of Robert Singleton of The Greater Astoria Historical Society and Nathalia (saw lady) Paruz) whose recent composition had just been the backdrop for a major movie that was being released nationwide. This venue also hosts podcasts in a backroom and can offer some very basic refreshments. Anyway, that is another story . The lighting is a little poor, but the acoustics were fine for the nearly two-hour meeting, with just enough seats for the complete audience. All in all a spot for and with great potential!

September in New York means Italian festivals! Beyond the famous San Gennaro in Manhattan and the…read moreFerragosto Festival in the Bronx, there's also the smaller but no less authentic Fresh Pond Road Festival. Held in Ridgewood, it's four days of food, family, and fun. Like any true Italian festival, it features a big shrine with statues of Maria S.S. del Soccorso Patrona di Castellammare del Golfo and Padre Pio, adding a spiritual centerpiece to the celebrations. I visited on Friday, the second of the four consecutive nights the festival runs. It takes place along several blocks of Fresh Pond Road. Parking can be tight in Ridgewood, but the location is right between the M train stop and multiple MTA buses on Metropolitan Ave. The food was a highlight, with many vendors representing neighborhood restaurants. I stopped at Corato II's food truck and ordered a traditional Sicilian pane e panelle and a seafood salad. Along with a water, the total was $20, which felt fair considering both the generous portions and the quality of the food. The festival also offers plenty of rides for kids, including a ferris wheel. At $12 for a ride on the ferris wheel, the prices were on the high side, but that's to be expected at a festival. To wrap up the night, I stopped into another local business, European Coffee Bar. Stepping inside felt like being transported straight to Italy: a classic bar, locals chatting in Italian over espresso, and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Enjoying my espresso and cannolo while listening to live Italian singers performing on the outdoor stage was the perfect way to end the evening.

This is by far the best way to enjoy food from multiple restaurants at one location/event in NYC…read more The food (and drink) is always amazing but what truly makes this food event stand out is that there are NO tiresome lines. Once you're inside, you're good to go. The food is from a cross section of some of Queen's best restaurants. There's beer/cocktails available. And there's been great live music the last couple of years as well. The attendees get great food. The restaurants get exposure to customers and publicity. The money raised funds food relief work. It's a win win win. 2025: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT5Tf_GDu-t/ 2026: coming fall 2026

An awesome foodie event for a good cause! The International Food Expo was organized by the…read morenonprofit Queens Together. All proceeds from the event benefit this year's Queen Together Thanksgiving food pantry for families in need. Over 40 local restaurants participated in the International Food Expo. The event was ticketed but once inside you were able to enjoy unlimited food and drink from all of the vendors. There were cuisines ranging from Thai to Tobagonian to Salvadoran and everything in between. Each vendor offered a few different dishes to sample. While the plates were small, it was easy to fill up due to the sheer number of dishes to try. I sampled 20-something different vendors before I couldn't eat any more. Neir's Tavern, the oldest restaurant in all of New York (since 1829), provided alcoholic beverages and tastings for the event. The event was well-organized. While turnout was high the space in the New York Hall of Science was big enough to accommodate and there were a lot of seating areas. All of the vendors had more than enough food. The ticket included free parking and the adjacent Flushing-Corona Meadows lot had ample space. All around, an amazing event celebrating the diversity of Queens and contributing positively to local communities.

If you really want to know the whole story, it's all laid out on their website but reading a bunch…read moreof bullet points on a screen about some big neighborhood spectacle is about the most depressing thing you can do, so I'll explain. ​Basically, the Giglio Feast is a historic 12-day Italian-American festival that happens every July at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's been going on since 1887 when immigrants brought it over from Nola, Italy, to honor Saint Paulinus commemorating when he returned from captivity after sacrificing himself for his people and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. That part actually sounds pretty decent, if you want to know the truth, but the way spectators in attendance make a huge circus out of it just drives me crazy. Then participants are amazing. ​The main event is this thing called the "Dancing of the Giglio," where they take a giant 70-foot tower made of wood and steel weighing four whole tons and covered in lilies, angels, and religious figures and hoist it up. They've got a live brass band and a singer literally sitting right on top of the timber frame while roughly 120 guys lift, spin, and "dance" this enormous four-ton thing down North 8th Street on their bare shoulders. ​Guys in matching outfits blowing saxophones and yelling on the platform, and crowds of people crammed together in the street taking photos and cheering. There's even a statue of a saint perched at the very top against the blue sky, looking down at all these phonies sweating and carrying on in the heat. It's supposed to be this grand, sacred tradition, but looking at a hundred guys breaking their backs to carry a four-ton tower with a band riding on it just makes you feel sort of tired and thirsty. It really does.

This was my second or third excursion here. It's been years since I've gone but it's probably a…read moremediocre fair, which is about ten blocks long, at best. A few basic rides and food being sold but I think it's relatively boring and just blah overall. If you're not a regular, live nearby or just in the area, for another reason, it's surely not worth venturing over here, in my opinion.

This location is always a cool small AMC, I like to go here when I'm not in the mood to drive to…read moreRoosevelt Field. I went with the kiddies to see Paw Patrol. The theatre was very clean. The only thing I didn't care for was being on what I thought was a line. The person that was standing doing something didn't even ask if I needed help. A couple come in & someone goes to help them. So I go was this not the line. And she apologized & said oh u weren't on the correct line (which I didn't realize because I was behind other people). Anyway, she did apologize & took my order. I will point out that the parking lot upstairs that u would normally use is blocked off for construction so you have to park in the garage next to the theatre. Luckily, I got a parking really close.

I grew up in Bayside, a block from the theater, before it even existed. It's always a bit…read morenostalgic being back. We got a mid week matinee ticket for The Odyssey. I read ahead of time about the construction, so navigated to the parking garage in the back (enter from the lower level), which made it super easy to get to the theater. The theater itself is small, but efficient - got my popcorn and inside within minutes. My only complaint is in the theater (#3), it felt like the screen was too high. We were in the 3rd row of 5 and felt like we had to recline fully to look up at the screen. I recently saw a movie in another theater and didn't have this issue. Will know in the future to sit in the last row!

It is an interesting place to be! There's tons of backgrounds for IG photos if you like selfies…read more I see a drink and a food menu. They have a ton of different kinds of things like momo, aloo dum, wai wai sadeko that seem yummy. I walked in around 8 PM on a Saturday, and I sat at the bar with my friends. I remembered the prices of the cocktails were in the teens, and it's cash only. I see karaoke rooms, and also a full bar. It has tables for a big group that could fit 10, and then it also had smaller tables. The music ranged from rap to reggaeton to pop. I heard they have live music, but I'm not sure the genre.