9-Day Arts Festival Coming To Greenwich Village This Fall

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — A nine-day arts, culture, and music festival is coming to Greenwich Village this September. The Village Trip Festival will run from Sept. 18 through 26 in an effort to bring foot traffic back to the neighborhood.

The festival will offer dozens of events throughout the community, from a free Latin Jazz concert in Washington Square Park to literary tours, poetry readings, theater crawls, and classical composition performances.

“This year, The Village Trip will have special resonance and meaning, as the neighborhood recovers from Covid and looks to the future,” said Clifford Pearson, Joint Artistic Director of the festival, in a news release. “As a Village resident, I know we all need the chance to remember what we’ve been through and celebrate where we are headed.”

Restaurants and bars in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood will also participate by offering special Village Trip cocktails and dishes on their menus during the festival.

British journalist and author Liz Thomson founded The Village Trip in 2018 after she was shocked to learn that Greenwich Village didn't have an annual arts festival despite its rich history.

Here are some of the specifics events that will take place during the festival this year:

"Bill Groom, production designer for the Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” will lead a walking tour of the Village, noting places in the neighborhood shown in the series. Bill Goldstein, who is writing a biography of playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer, will talk about work on that book at the NYC AIDS Memorial. Other festival activities will include a concert by
young performers from the Third Street Music School Settlement, presentations of scenes by students at HB Studios, a theater crawl, a Land of the Blacks tour led by Kamau Ware, a Willa Cather tour led by Tom Gallagher, an architectural tour, a rock-and-roll tour, and an LGBTQ tour. Public historian Kathleen Hulser will lead people on a tour focusing on the “Bad, Rad, and Boho Women of the Village.” Young-adult author Diane Zahler will give a reading, as will other children’s book authors. Writer Brad Gooch will talk about his novel “Smash Cut,” which is set in the Village of the 1970s and ‘80s," reads a preview for the festival.

The Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce is parting with The Village Trip to organize this year's festival — which will be the third event in its Live The Village Festival — an initiative to bring foot traffic back to the neighborhood after the pandemic.

You can find out more about the festival here.