Central Park, Oct 3–9: four nights of film at Cherry Hill, City of Forest Day, and the best weather of the autumn

        The Conservancy has put a film festival on Cherry Hill for four straight nights — Tuesday through Friday at 7 PM, opening with Carl Sagan and closing with LION — and the forecast has given it clear skies every night. Before that, Saturday brings City of Forest Day in the North Woods, which is the best family morning on the October calendar.

Weather this week

Saturday is 71° and sunny; Sunday turns showery at 64° and 54%. Then sunshine every day — 70°, 62°, 66°, 71°, 71° — with a 0% rain chance Tuesday through Friday. Nights fall to 48–56°, so the outdoor films want a blanket and a thermos.

Sat Oct 3 — City of Forest Day in the North Woods

Wonder in the Woods is the Conservancy’s City of Forest Day: a family morning of discovery in Central Park’s North Woods, from 10 AM at Gottesman Pool at the Davis Center, with a second session at Arsenal Plaza 11 AM–2 PM. The North Woods is the wildest and least-visited part of the park, and a guided October morning there is worth rearranging a Saturday for.

The rest of a 71° sunny day:

  Kingman Classic Singles Tournament on Bowling Green, 10 AM–4 PM — lawn bowls.
  Community Wellness Walk on the Great Hill Oval, 11 AM–2 PM.
  Model Yacht Racing at Kerbs Boathouse, 9 AM–3 PM.
  UnityMarketsNY at Farmers’ Gate, 9 AM–7 PM.
  That Guitar Man from Central Park at Hernshead, noon–6 PM.
  Seneca Village Tour at 2 PM from Mariners’ Gate.

The Terry Fox Run stages at Bandshell Plaza 9:15–11 AM, so the Mall is busy mid-morning. 39 private ceremony bookings land Saturday — the scenic spots are taken.

Sun Oct 4 — bagels, yoga, folkdancers, and a boat relay

A Central Park Solo Duathlon Boat Relay stages at the Loeb Boathouse 7–9 AM. Then, 64° with showers likely:

  Bagels in the Park at the East 72nd Street Playground, 9–11 AM.
  Yoga at Dalehead Arch, 10–11:30 AM.
  Birding Basics at Belvedere Castle at 10; Seneca Village Tour at 2.
  Vision Boarding at Cherry Hill, 1–3 PM.
  International Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza, 11 AM–6 PM.

Mon Oct 5 — an empty park at 70°

Not one scheduled event. Mostly sunny, 70°. The quietest the park gets all week.

Tue Oct 6 – Fri Oct 9 — the Conservancy Film Festival, four nights at Cherry Hill

The Central Park Conservancy Film Festival screens on Cherry Hill at 7 PM:

  Tue Oct 6 — Carl Sagan: We are Made of Star Stuff
  Wed Oct 7 — Time and Water
  Thu Oct 8 — Blink
  Fri Oct 9 — LION

Four clear nights in a row, which almost never happens for an outdoor series. The permit holds Cherry Hill and Frisbee Hill from the morning, so the lawn is set up long before dusk. Temperatures drop into the 50s after dark — this is blanket weather, not shirtsleeves.

Alongside it, the Conservancy’s Women’s Committee Game Event takes the Chess and Checkers House Tuesday and Thursday, 6 AM–7 PM, and New Dendrology is at the Arsenal Gallery weekdays 9–5, free.

Thu Oct 8 – Fri Oct 9 — the Big Apple Triathlon arrives

The Big Apple Triathlon holds all-day permits across Cherry Hill, Wagner Cove, Bandshell Plaza and the park drives from Thursday, running into the following weekend. For walkers that mainly means equipment, fencing and crowds around Cherry Hill and the Lower Loop — the same ground the film festival uses, so the two overlap on Thursday and Friday.

Steady all week

  Bethesda Terrace and Fountain closed all day, every day — the permits now run to November 2.
  Bird Watching with Birding Bob — five mornings from Loeb Boathouse. Migration is tailing off; these are the last good weeks.
  Columbus Circle Food Market at Merchants’ Gate all week, 9:30 AM–9 PM.
  189 field permits — 81 at Heckscher, 77 at North Meadow, 20 on the tennis courts, and none at all on the Great Lawn.

Quick recap

  Conservancy Film Festival, Cherry Hill, 7 PM Tuesday to Friday. Carl Sagan, Time and Water, Blink, LION.
  City of Forest Day Saturday — Wonder in the Woods, North Woods, from 10 AM.
  Monday has no events at all, 70° and sunny.
  Four clear nights for the films, but cold — 48–56° after dark.
  Big Apple Triathlon from Thursday, overlapping the film festival ground.
  Bethesda Terrace now closed through November 2.

Enjoy the best week of the autumn,
Central Park Guide