Family Fun Day celebrates Governors Island’s green spaces and its playful attitude. This outdoor festival will feature live music, theatrical performances, arts and crafts, educational workshops, face painting, games, ice cream and other snacks, and a build-your-own playground.
Date: Saturday, July 15th
Time: 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: Governors Island (Nolan Park)
Ages: All
Fee: Free
For more information, please visit their website HERE
Welcome to play:groundNYC’s third year of summer camp!
Our Governors Island play lot is a blank slate, ready to be transformed into a land of your own imagining. Work with new friends to bring big ideas to life using a wide array of materials, craft supplies, and basic hand tools. Never used a hammer before? No problem! Our playworkers are here to help you learn the skills you need. Join us for a summer of unforgettable outdoor fun!
Each day at camp will be filled with plenty of opportunities for campers to plan their own adventures. Materials will be provided and supervised by trained playworkers in different areas of the playground.
Due to the self-directed nature of our camp, much of your child’s day will be (wonderfully) up to them! They will have opportunities to play with others, spend time alone, build, take apart, imagine, play in and with water, just relax, or anything else they can come up with! Your child will get dirty and may get small bumps, bruises, or scratches, as that is the nature of play.
They will also have the daily option to take a walk around Governors Island to explore other programs and parts of the island with our staff. We will take a lunch break and two snack breaks outside of the gates of the playground under the shade of trees across a small (car-less) road. This will help provide a chance for them to have a rest and re-energize. The playground itself provides partial shade under canopies and plenty of materials that they are free to use under the supervision of our staff who have been specially trained to work in this environment.
Drop off is at 8:30 am and pick up at 3:00 pm at the Battery Maritime Building (at 10 South Street on the corner of South and Whitehall Streets in Lower Manhattan, next to the Staten Island ferry terminal.)
Weekly sessions are $625 for an 8:30 am to 3 pm camp day.
Available Weeks
(Enrollment is now open for eight 1 week sessions from July 9th through August 31st)
July 9 – 13 – SOLD OUT
July 16 – 20 – SOLD OUT
July 23 – 27 – GIRLS WEEK! – SOLD OUT
July 30 – August 3 – available
August 6 – 10 – available
August 13 – 17 – available
August 20 – 24 – available
August 27 – 31 – available
Please Note: We also offer an early bird discount and can provide two financial aid scholarships per week. There is a 10% discount for siblings and for campers registering for multiple weeks. **To receive the multiple week discount you must register for the multiple weeks within the same registration.**
Register for Summer camp HERE
Ensemble Connect
Called “a valuable part of New York’s musical fabric” by The New York Times, Ensemble Connect will present a newly commissioned work by renowned composer and virtuoso percussionist Andy Akiho. Written in collaboration with the 2016–2018 Ensemble Connect fellows, Akiho’s work will receive its NY premiere at the Rite of Summer Music Festival. Rounding out the adventurous program are contemporary and classical works inspired by summer weather and collective music making.
Ensemble Connect is made up of some of the finest young professional classical musicians in the United States who are taking part in a two-year fellowship program created in 2007 by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The program prepares fellows for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership by offering them top-quality performance opportunities, intensive professional development, and the opportunity to partner throughout the fellowship with a New York City public school.
Rite of Summer
Now in its eighth season on Governors Island, Rite of Summer is a classical contemporary music festival that takes place over four weekends during the summer months. The festival features many of NYC’s most engaging and innovative artists &ensembles. The Rite of Summer “concert hall” is Colonels Row, a short walk from both the Manhattan & Brooklyn ferries. All performances are free and open to the public.
Date: Saturday, June 9th
Time: 1:00pm & 3:00pm
Location: Governor’s Island: Colonels Row
Fee: Free
Age(s): All ages welcome
For more information, visit their website HERE.
Governors Island never ceases to amaze us with their new additions every year. This year they have added Summertime Ice Skating! Made from a synthetic material designed for metal ice skates, Mel’s Rink on Governors Island will give New Yorkers the rare opportunity to skate during the summer months and is the first outdoor skating opportunity on Governors Island. Skate rentals will be available for ages, with free skating every weekday from 10 am – 12 pm. The rink officially opens to the public on Saturday, May 26th.
One of the only places in New York City to skate during the summer months, Governors Island’s 8,000 square-foot skating rink is built in partnership with Mel’s Rink Foundation, a Maryland-based non-profit that provides mentally and physically challenged children and adults with skating and hockey lessons, sports skills and spaces to play. Originally located on the rooftop of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., Mel’s Rink moves to Governors Island this season, the organization’s first venture in New York City.
Located along the Island’s Western Promenade near historic Castle Williams and in view of the Statue of Liberty, Mel’s Rink Governors Island will be open daily from 10 am – 5 pm on weekdays and from 10 am – 6 pm weekends beginning Saturday, May 26th. The rink will remain open during Governors Island’s late Fridays until 9 pm, beginning Friday, June 1. Free skating is available on weekdays for the first hour from 10 am – 12 pm.
For Skate Rentals, the rates are as follows:
$20 for adults / $15 for children
FiDi Families Insiders: If you bring your own skates, rink access is: $10 for adults/$5 for children
HOURS: 10 am to 6 pm weekdays, from 10 am – 10 pm on Fridays between May 25 – September 14 and from 10 am – 7 pm weekends.
For more information, please visit their website HERE
The Urban Archive app is hosting a historical scavenger hunt on Governor’s Island. Yes, there will be prizes awarded for the top three teams and you don’t want to miss this!
Urban Archive is a location-based mobile platform that brings together the digital collections of New York City’s museums, archives, and libraries in an easy-to-use resource built for discovery, empowering New Yorkers to learn about history where it happened.
FiDi Families Insiders: At least one person on your team has to have an iPhone.
Date: Saturday, October 21st
Time: 12pm
Location: Governor’s Island – Nolan Park Lawn
Fee: Free
Age(s): Any ages but must have iPhone
For more information and the full schedule please visit their website HERE.
Your adventure begins in Manhattan at the Battery Maritime Building where you’ll board our ferry for a few minutes ride through New York Harbor to this truly unique jack o’lantern jaunt here on Governors Island.
Upon arrival on the island, it’s a short walk to the jack o’lantern trail. Along the way, you’ll take in breathtaking nighttime views of the Manhattan skyline, Statue of Liberty, and you’ll pass the spooky Castle Willams, a former military fort and prison built in the early 1800’s. Once on trail, you’ll see our LED lit jack o’lanterns staged along a festive, paved, tree-lined pathway among the backdrop of centuries old buildings. It’s Halloween in the Harbor, like you’ve never seen it before!
See DOZENS of intricately carved 100+ pound pumpkins on display! These ephemeral works of art are meticulously hand-painted and hand-carved by dozens of artists who put upwards of 20 hours of work into each pumpkin to make them perfect for your enjoyment!
We’re bringing in one of the top pumpkin sculptors in the country to carve a dozen of the most jaw-dropping externally carved pumpkin sculptures you’ll ever see! You’ll find them along the trail submerged in a super-secret-preservation-solution so they’ll be preserved for the entire month of October!
We have teams in place to carve over 1,000 pumpkins for this special event! That’s 20,000 pounds of pumpkins carved for your jack o’lantern enjoyment!
Want to see some of our carvers in action? Check out our live carving demonstrations when you arrive or before you leave. We’ll have a few of our top jack o’lantern artists carving live and answering your carving questions so you can take that knowledge home and make your doorstep jacks the envy of the neighborhood.
FiDi Families Insiders: Use our special discount link for 50% OFF the cost of tickets! Simply visit their website HERE
You will need to register your email address to receive a special promocode for discounted tickets. Feel free to share!
Governors Island offers 7 miles of car free roads, for biking, scootering, skateboarding and more. This weekend, New Yorkers are invited to bring your own bike to this great destination or rent one from Blazing Saddles near Liggett Terrace or Citi Bike at the ferry landing.
“Free bike mornings” sponsored by Blazing Saddles allows visitors to rent a free bike for up to one hour every Monday – Friday from 10am to 12 noon.
Date(s): Now through Saturday, October 1st
Time: 10am – 12pm
Location: Governor’s Island
Age(s): 5 and up
Fee: Free for one hour!
For more information, please visit their website HERE.
