Free Family Events This Weekend! (August 24-26)

Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day will take place this Saturday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center! Photo by mirsasha via Flickr.

Have an amazing weekend without opening your wallet! For even more activity inspiration, check out our Weekend Planner.

Through Monday, September 3

“dusk.space” Installation
All day
Peck Slip
All Ages
Head out to Peck Slip Park to see “dusk.space,” an art installation that synthetically recreates a serene field on a summer’s day, as part of the Art in Park Program.

Beginning Friday, August 24

“Macbeth”
7-9pm
Bryant Park
All Ages
See the classic Shakespeare play, reimagined in the New York of the mid-1800s, outdoors in Bryant Park!

Friday, August 24

Movie Night: “The Day the Earth Stood Still”
8pm
Narrows Botanical Gardens
All Ages
In this 1951 sci-fi film, an alien, Klaatu, and his robot land their spacecraft on Cold War-era Earth just after the end of World War II. They bring an important message to the planet that Klaatu wishes to tell to representatives of all nations. However, communication turns out to be difficult, so, after learning something about the natives, Klaatu decides on an alternative approach.

Beginning Saturday, August 25

Brookfield Place Tennis Open
Various times
Brookfield Place
All Ages
Cheer on tennis teams at the 3rd annual Brookfield Place Tennis Open; a winner will be crowned on Thursday night. Kids and adults can also participate in free tennis clinics. Check event website for daily schedule and times. Runs through Friday, August 31.

Saturday, August 25

Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day
9:30am-4pm
USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
All Ages
This Saturday, Net Generation will present Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day at the US Open in honor of the tennis icon. This annual event, which is the largest single-day tennis and entertainment event in the world, will feature live music by Echosmith, Kim Petras, AJ Mitchell, and more. Plus, kids will have the amazing opportunity to watch Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal–two of the top men’s players in the world–duke it out in fun exhibition matches and skills competitions! Before the ticketed stadium show, beginning at 1pm, little tennis stars can enjoy free tennis activities on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center starting at 9:30am. Please note: Admission and tennis activities are free; stadium show requires the purchase of a ticket.

Dream! It’s a Family Festival
10am-1pm
The High Line
Ages 12 and under
Join the High Line for its Dream! It’s A Family Festival. Families with children ages 12 and under are welcome during this morning of free programming. Activities include storytime with Gail Carson Levine, bestselling author of Ella Enchanted, a musical performance from Superhero Clubhouse, art making with ArchForKids, and a mobile garden workshop. Reservations are encouraged. This event will be held rain or shine.

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Brooklyn Chess Festival
11am-4pm
Dr. Ronald McNair Park
All Ages
Sharpen your chess skills at this fun game festival in Brooklyn! Players of all skill levels are welcome to take part in activities like learning how to play, practicing techniques, taking checkmate workshops, playing pickup games, or even challenging Chess Master Irina Krush!

Fearless Fun Festival
12-4pm
Rockefeller Park
All Ages
The Fearless Fun Festival lets kids of all cultures and backgrounds to have fun together in a welcoming, positive environment. Activities include indoor and outdoor games, mini workshops focusing on mentorship, food, music, dancing, access to support groups, and far more. Proceeds go towards The CLASS Network Youth Department programming, as well as Raising H.O.P.E. initiatives. Pre-registration is required.

Brooklyn Back to School Bash
1pm
Albee Square
All Ages
Head to Fulton Mall for FitBEAT, an all-ages dance party, and jam out with At Your Beat and Afro-Brazilian percussion band Batalá New York. Activities include jump rope, hop-scotch, chess, hackey sack, hula hoop, and more. Plus kids can take pics in the Downtown Brooklyn photo booth. You might even get to win some back-to-school swag!

“A Wrinkle in Time”
6pm
St. Nicholas Park
All Ages
For “KIDS NIGHT OUT!” in association with Harlem Week, go see A Wrinkle in Time. Pre-movie music includes family-friendly R&B/Soul and conscious Hip Hop by DJ Mike.

Sunday, August 26

42nd Annual Brighton Jubilee
10am-6pm
Brighton Beach Avenue (from Corbin Place to Coney Island Avenue)
All Ages
Enjoy the final days of summer during the 42nd annual Brighton Jubilee! It’ll be a fantastic day at the beach where you can play in the waves and sand or stroll along the Riegelman Wooden Boardwalk. There will also be food stands aplenty to make sure you have enough calories to walk the three-mile boardwalk. This event will take place rain or shine.

Battle of Brooklyn: Commemoration
11am-2pm
Green-Wood Cemetery
All Ages
Take a trolley into the past during this year’s Commemoration of the Battle of Brooklyn at Green-Wood Cemetery. The Battle of Brooklyn, the first battle of the American Revolution to be fought after the Declaration of Independence had been signed, took place in 1776. In memory of the battle, families can take a ticketed trolley tour of Green-Wood’s 478 luscious green acres, experience life during revolutionary-era New York through re-enactments and historical cooking demos, participate in the Battle of Brooklyn Parade, and take part in the closing ceremony. This event will take place rain or shine.

Boogie on the Boulevard
2-6pm
The Bronx Museum
All Ages
Get ready to boogie! On Sunday, August 26th the center lanes of the Grand Concourse from 162nd Street to 170th Street will be closed to cars and open to a world of fun with music, art, and fitness programs hosted by organizations from the Bronx and beyond. RSVP through Eventbrite.

The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center

The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center offers year-round, community-based dance and music programming in a fully inclusive and nurturing environment, located in the heart of the Brooklyn Cultural District. The School&rsquo;s diverse and professional faculty provides progressive and non-competitive instruction with all of our classes accompanied by live music. Though we are a non-recital school, there are opportunities for students to perform and for parents to see their dancers in action.

The Music Institute of Long Island

Established in 1990, the Music Institute of Long Island (MILI) is a classical music school staffed by exceptional instructors from many of the most prestigious conservatories and graduate music schools in the United States and Europe. Long Island&rsquo;s foremost musical academies, its instrumental programs include violin, viola, cello, piano, flute, clarinet, saxophone and voice classes. MILI has been voted # 1 BEST MUSIC SCHOOL Consistently.&nbsp; They teach the Traditional, Suzuki, and ABRSM methods. Students participate in All-National, All-Eastern, All-State, youth orchestras, and score highly in NYSSMA and Royal Academy Music Festivals. First prize winners of competitions earn solos at Carnegie Hall and with orchestras. MILI offers Fall/Spring semesters plus Summer Sessions. Semesters include 15-17 weeks of private lessons, solo recitals with a final GALA Concert featuring chamber music. About the Directors: Carol &amp; Geri Kushner: The sisters are violinists, violists, chamber coaches &amp; performers. They believe in instilling the love of music, &nbsp;fostering proficiency, success, confidence &amp; believe all MILI students achieve success. Degrees BM, MM (+), K-12 certifications, attended Manhattan School of Music, Queens College &amp; Stonybrook University.They have been adjunct professors at Syracuse University, Aaron Copland School of Music Pre-College &amp; Five Towns Colleges, Stonybrook University &amp; have taught in L.I. public schools.

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;