Things To Do Near You

An exciting new event has been announced for Westchester County in June 2024! On Saturday, June 8, the first Sleepy Hollow Music Festival will be taking place at Kingsland Point Park! As of right now, there is not a ton of information regarding the event, but I will be sharing everything that is currently on the website for the event, and I just feel that this event is too cool to not write about. There will be merchandise made for the event, which has not been revealed yet, but I’m assuming will probably be things like shirts, maybe some bags specifically for the event will also be sold there. This merchandise will be sold at the event, and in the next few months, people can purchase merchandise from the website of the event.  Guests can bring some personal items, like sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, non-professional film and digital cameras, empty and reusable water bottles, snacks, a blanket to sit on in designated areas, low-back chairs, and a driver’s license to purchase alcohol....

If you are looking for a fun way to kick off the new year, go enjoy some First Day Hikes at any park in New York state! All day long on January 1, there will be guided hikes at some of the most famous parks around the state.  For my readers who live in Long Island, there are several places where you can go on guided hikes in the region. One of these hikes will be at Camp Hero State Park in Montauk, which will take guests through its landscape of heavily wooded trails and unique birdlife within a historic military installation, where guests will learn about its history. The hike will start at 9:00 and will last at least two hours and is also between three and four miles long. There will also be a hike at Robert Moses State Park in Babylon, which will be a walk along the beach where guests will be looking for seals and winter birds. This hike starts at 9:30 and will be approximately 2-4 miles long. There will also be a hike at Bethpage State Park, where guests will be looking for sig...

If you are looking for a mall where you can do tons of shopping, head over to the Stamford Town Center! This is a 761,000-square-foot mall that has room for 130 businesses and is located in the center of Downtown Stamford.  It first opened in 1982 as part of an urban renewal project in the city. When it opened, it had two anchors, which were Macy’s and J.C. Penney. While Macy’s is still there today, J.C. Penney moved out in 1994 and got replaced by a Filene’s. In 1983, Saks Fifth Avenue opened a store at the mall and became the third anchor there.  The mall was successful for many years, getting many shoppers from New York City and other places around the world. It was also considered one of the country’s most successful malls in the 1990s, even with tough competition nearby. In 2006, the mall got a massive redevelopment, following the closing of Filene’s in 2005. This redevelopment saw the entire southern portion of the mall get demolished as a way of becoming more pedestrian...

If you are looking for a performance venue nearby that has many exciting upcoming shows, head over to the Tarrytown Music Hall! This is a venue that has many shows from famous artists through the course of a year and has also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  If you want to go see a movie there, they have two screenings coming up. The first one is on December 16, and it’s a screening of the holiday classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.” Another exciting screening that they will have is on February 25, which will be a sing-along version of the movie “The Greatest Showman,” which will feature on screen lyrics during the songs so that everyone in the audience can join in. There will also be a host there that will teach the audience specific dance moves and how to use interactive prop bags, and the audience is also recommended to wear costumes. There will also be musicals for kids based on children’s books. The first one will be on February 18 and will be a musical ba...

If you are looking for one of the best places in Westchester to go for a hike, head over to Teatown Lake Reservation in Ossining! It is a 1,000-acre nature preserve that is also an education center that teaches people about the environment, specifically sustaining the diversity of wildlife and plants.  Teatown has almost fifteen miles of hiking trails that are used throughout the year by over 10,000 hikers who are either studying nature or doing some type of outdoor activity like jogging, cross country skiing, or snowshoeing. They are also used for many of their year-round education activities, such as their summer nature camp. There is a total of fourteen trails that go across a variety of terrains and habitats, such as fields, mixed hardwood forests, laurel groves, lakes, streams, swamps, and farmland. These trails range in difficulty from easy to moderately difficult. One of the purposes of the preserve is that it provides visitors with a unique glimpse of the biological diversi...

If you want to go to a fascinating place in Westchester County, head over to Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills! This is a non-profit farm, education, and research center that was created on 80 acres that used to belong to the Rockefeller estate. The stone barns on the property were commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to be a dairy farm in the 1930s, then it fell into disuse in the 1950s and was mostly used for storage. In the 1970s, agricultural activity started up again when David Rockefeller’s wife Peggy McGrath began a successful cattle breeding operation. The actual center as it is today was created by David Rockefeller, his daughter Peggy Dulany, and their associate James Ford as a memorial for David’s wife who died in 1996, and it opened to the public in 2004.  The farm on the property runs all year round and has six acres that are used for vegetable production. It grows 300 varieties of produce year-round in the outdoor fields and gardens and...

If you are looking for a fun holiday event to go to this month, head over to Mount Vernon, New York! From now until December 23, the Mount Vernon store American Christmas will be having an event called Holiday Lane at American Christmas: An Enchanting Journey. This is described as an immersive walk-through holiday experience that features over 100,000 Christmas lights and more than 100 animatronics and figurines in nine uniquely themed areas. Guests will also have the opportunity to spend time in the expanded American Christmas shop, which currently occupies two floors and features some of the most unique decorations found anywhere in the region including collectable Christopher Radko ornaments. Santa will also be visiting Holiday Lane on Wednesdays from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM and Fridays from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM. American Christmas is also responsible for the light displays in Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Macy’s, Cartier, Saks, and Harry Winston. They have had Holiday Lane be...

If you are looking for a fun place that has animals and artwork, head over to the Stamford Museum & Nature Center! It covers 118 acres and has a 10-acre farm, a Tudor-style Museum and gallery that has exhibitions, an interactive nature center, 80 acres of outdoor trails, a planetarium, a 4-story observatory with a research telescope, an otter pond, and a playground designed for children to experience animals’ perspective on nature. The farm originally opened in 1955 with a dairy barn, a creamery, stalls for three cows, a silo, a barnyard, and two paddocks. Since then, they have added a chicken coop, a pig pen, larger pastures, shelters, multiple barns, an organic vegetable garden, a maple sugar house and cidery, and many heritage breeds of farm animals.  There is also an indoor exhibit that features exotic animals and plants from across the globe. Some of the animals it includes are tarantulas, lizards, snakes, sugar gliders, chinchillas, and tortoises. They also currently have...