New York festivals and annual events

Winter Village at Bryant Park

Winter Village fills Bryant Park, between 40th and 42nd Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues, from late October to the end of February. Its 17,000 square foot rink is what the park calls New York's largest free-admission rink. Bring your own skates and the ice costs nothing, though you still need a free timed ticket, and those are released a week ahead. Rental skates cost extra. Holiday Shops by Urbanspace, in glass-roofed kiosks along the park's paths, stay until early January. The Lodge, an open-air bar and food hall beside the rink, pours mulled wine with a view of the skaters and keeps going to the end of February with the ice. Cozy Igloos above the rink can be booked for 90-minute sessions of up to eight people.