The best things to do in NYC this weekend got a boost from last weekend's nor'easter. The storm pushed several big outdoor events to Sunday, October 4, so this weekend picks up the Atlantic Antic and Bay Ridge's Third Avenue Festival on top of an already full calendar. Harry Styles is back at the Garden Saturday night. Sunday brings the Giants at home in the afternoon and the Smashing Pumpkins playing Mellon Collie in full at Barclays that night. The New York Film Festival is in its second weekend at Lincoln Center. Here's what's worth the trip from Long Island this weekend, and how to get there and back without the usual headaches.

Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden

Saturday, October 3. The "Together, Together" residency keeps rolling, and it runs through October 31. Doors open at 7 p.m., Jamie xx opens, and Styles usually takes the stage around 9 p.m. Expect the show to end around 11. Primary tickets are long gone, so if you're going, you probably paid resale and you'll want the night to go right.

The hard part of a Garden show is the last half hour. Twenty thousand people come out onto Seventh and Eighth Avenue at the same time. Some of them head down to the LIRR concourse at Penn, where the late trains to Ronkonkoma and Port Washington fill up fast. The rest are refreshing a rideshare app on 33rd Street. Your driver is staged on a side street before the encore and texts you exactly where to walk. You're on the Midtown Tunnel and the LIE while the crowd is still on the sidewalk.

The Atlantic Antic, Rescheduled to Sunday

Sunday, October 4, 12 to 6 p.m. The 51st Atlantic Antic was supposed to happen last weekend before the nor'easter washed it out. It's Brooklyn's biggest and oldest street festival, covering ten blocks of Atlantic Avenue with live music stages, more than 80 food vendors, over 130 merchants, and three blocks of activities for kids. Bay Ridge's Third Avenue Festival also moved to Sunday, so that's two big Brooklyn street fairs on the same afternoon.

If you're coming from Nassau or Suffolk, parking is the problem. Atlantic Avenue is closed for the festival, and the side streets in Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill fill up before noon. We drop you at a corner just outside the festival footprint and pick you up at a spot we agree on in advance. If you're doing the Antic and then the Pumpkins show later (it's the same avenue), our hourly service keeps one driver with you all day.

The Smashing Pumpkins at Barclays Center

Sunday, October 4 at 8 p.m. The Rats in a Cage Tour comes to Barclays with two sets. The first is Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, all 28 tracks in order, for the album's 30th anniversary. The second covers the rest of the catalog, from Gish and Siamese Dream through the Atum trilogy. That's a long night of music, and you won't be walking out until well after 11.

If you were a teenager on Long Island in 1995, you know exactly why people are driving in for this one. You also know a Sunday night show means work on Monday morning. Leaving Barclays is never fast. Flatbush and Atlantic back up as soon as the arena empties, and on Sunday the Antic cleanup crews will still be out on Atlantic. Your driver will be waiting a block off the plaza, then it's the BQE to the LIE, or the Belt if the Kosciuszko is backed up. You're home in Huntington or Garden City before the Atlantic Terminal platforms clear.

Giants vs. Cardinals at MetLife, Sunday 1 p.m.

Sunday, October 4, 1:00 p.m. kickoff on CBS. The Giants host Arizona in Week 4. Lots open five hours before kickoff, and tailgaters will be there from 9 a.m.

MetLife is the hardest trip on this list from Long Island. You cross the whole city, either the Cross Bronx to the GW or through Midtown to the Lincoln Tunnel. Then after the game, 80,000 people head for Route 3 and the Turnpike at the same time. A 4:30 final whistle also puts you on the road home just as Sunday traffic back from upstate and the Jersey Shore picks up. We know where to stage so you aren't stuck in a lot for an hour, and we can get you home in time for the Pumpkins if you're doing both. Our Giants season opener guide goes through MetLife timing from Long Island in detail.

New York Film Festival, Second Weekend

The 64th New York Film Festival runs through October 12 at Lincoln Center, with satellite screenings at BAM in Fort Greene and the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. This year's Centerpiece is Tony Gilroy's "Behemoth!" with Pedro Pascal. Starting Sunday, October 4, Moving Image is also showing highlights from the festival, so you can catch some of the main slate without going all the way to the Upper West Side.

Astoria is about 30 minutes from Great Neck when the Grand Central is moving. Lincoln Center is a different story. Parking around Broadway and 65th on a festival night is expensive and slow to get out of, and Columbus Avenue at 10 p.m. is a fight for the curb. Make it dinner on the Upper West Side and a screening at Alice Tully Hall, with the car out front when the Q&A ends.

Día de los Muertos Opens at the New York Botanical Garden

Starting Saturday, October 3, the NYBG in the Bronx begins its month-long Día de los Muertos celebration. There are marigold displays, papel picado workshops, and Mexican folk music, and it runs through November 2. Early October is also a good time to see the Garden itself, before the leaves turn and the crowds show up.

From the North Shore it's a straight run across the Throgs Neck, which makes this one of the easier family days in the city. The NYBG lot fills up on nice fall weekends, though, and the Bronx River Parkway gets slow around the entrance in the early afternoon. Get dropped at the Mosholu gate and let someone else deal with the lot.

Getting Around This Weekend

This weekend's big events are spread out. The Garden on Saturday night, then Sunday has Brooklyn street fairs at midday, a Giants game in New Jersey in the afternoon, and Barclays at night. If you're trying to do two of those in one day, the drive between them is the hard part. That's where a car you've booked ahead pays off.

We're a Long Island chauffeur service, not a rideshare. Your driver is assigned ahead of time, watches the actual end of your show or game instead of the scheduled one, and is at the curb when you walk out. No surge pricing when 20,000 people open the same app. No cancellation four minutes before pickup. We've been making these runs from Nassau and Suffolk for 20 years. Our NYC events transportation page has the venue-by-venue details. If you're flying out this weekend instead, the JFK car service page has terminal timing.

Whether it's the Garden on Saturday or Barclays on Sunday, request a quote and let us handle the driving. The car will be there.

Best Things To Do in NYC This Weekend — October 3–4, 2026